From the Ashes
by NotCras
Summary: The Reapers are defeated and the celebrations are over. Shepard has been dragged in to help with reconstruction but a new challenge presents itself. Something Shepard can't win on his own. A continuation of the A Little Ship in Space's story.
1. Chapter 1

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Hey everyone, this is the last author's note that I'm going to do in the actual story.

This is a sequel story to my ending story A Little Ship Lost in Space. I encourage you guys to go read it, because there are some things I neglected to explain in here that are explained in the first story. Anyway, this is a story about immediately after all the celebrations of the war of existence, as I like to call it (or Reaper war). Shepard gets dragged into another galactic responsibility and ... well actually I don't want to ruin it! haha

This story will continue on with many other chapters. I sort of figured out the general plotline of it all and so I have a lot more planned. Just so you know, I selected the story to be a romance and drama story... please know that I also wanted it to be humor as well, but we all know that we can only choose two. Anyway, just wanted you guys to know that!

For those that want a new No is for Naga, don't worry, that's next on my list! Keep an eye out! xD

Here's my disclaimer (I always forget to put these in). Bioware owns everything except the story that I crafted. :D

Anyway, I present to you, **From the Ashes**. Enjoy! (and please remember that I do LOVE reviews!)

* * *

"Just think of it as an investment for the future. We spend some time on Earth until the prototype FTL drives are installed on the Normandy, and then we leave." Shepard said to the disappointed crew. "Earth does need the help with rebuilding, and we can truly rest in the meantime before we head out. Dismissed."

The crew filed out, many looking back at Shepard with sullen faces. _They are still riled up after the celebrations yesterday._ Shepard thought. _They want more action, but now comes the boring stuff._ He headed to the war room to contact Admiral Hackett.

Liara was outside the door. She was nervously wringing her hands. "Shepard, seeing as Garrus and Tali needed my room, I moved all my Shadow Broker stuff to the war room, I hope you don't mind."  
Shepard smiled "The war room would seem like a perfect place for your stuff." With a peck on the lips, he beckoned her to follow him in.  
"Good because I already moved everything in."  
The doors opened and Glyph, Liara's VI, greeted them. "Greetings Commander Shepard, Dr. T'soni wishes to see you." It was oblivious to the fact that Liara was right behind him.  
"I'm right behind him glyph, thanks."  
The VI moved Liara into its vision. "Greetings Shadow Broker. I'm sorry for disturbing you."  
"That's no problem glyph."

Together they walked past the VI drone and Shepard beheld the conference room. Technology filled the room without making it unbearable.  
"I approve Miss Shadow Broker."  
"You haven't seen everything yet."  
They walked into the war room. Shadow Broker feeds lined the walls. In the center the holographic display showed a map of the galaxy, littered with flashing green dots.  
"These are where all my agents are." Liara ran her hand along the side of the display as she walked around it. She leisurely tapped a button on the side to pull up the information on a specific operative. _How come I never got to do that during the war?_ Shepard shook his head and laughed.  
"I didn't even know you could do that stuff on this."  
"There's a saying amongst your human women- Men never read the instruction manuals. I'd say I would have to agree." Liara smiled, tongue in cheek.  
"Oh is that so?" Shepard came in close and put her arms around her. "Well that's why I have you around." Their faces came together.  
After he devoted a minute or two to his bondmate, he turned and walked up the stairs to the comm station. Liara followed him up. He tried to hail Hackett, however the line was busy. Shepard grunted in annoyance and turned to his bondmate yet again.  
"So I'm curious where you learned that saying Liara." Liara blushed and turned away.  
"Oh, you know me, always having to learn about social interaction before I do it."  
Shepard laughed. "You were looking up what human men like?"  
"No, asking. Ashley, Tali, Samara, and I had a very good chat about human men."  
"You… You asked her? You could have just asked me."  
She smiled. "I'll have you know that we had a very good time together."  
"Still, they don't know that much about men."  
Liara laughed really hard at that point. "Ashley said you'd say something like that."  
Shepard face palmed when he realized that he had fallen into the trap. He laughed to himself, all the while rolling his eyes. _Just change the subject, you're digging a deeper hole for yourself if you keep this up._ "You know, with everything happening, you and I should have some alone time."

Liara pulled him closer. "I'd like that."  
Shepard was just inches from her face. He knew she wanted it, and so did he. They began to gravitate to each other. Shepard's hand began to push aside her jacket and...

AHEM.

The couple flew into the air from surprise. They turned around to behold Admiral Hackett present on the comm.  
"How long have you been there?" Shepard asked.  
"Enough to know that if I had waited any longer, I would have to hang up and call some other time."  
Liara hooked her arm with Shepard's and rested her head on his shoulder.  
There was a silence before anyone knew what to say.  
Hackett laughed. "Ah young love. It makes an older man like me wish for the younger days."  
Shepard shuddered at that thought. All he could imagine was the same old Hackett trying to hit on girls. He could not imagine him any younger.  
"So what can I do for you two?"  
"Since we are stuck on Earth while the Normandy is retro-fitted, what can we do to help with the cleanup?"  
"Ah yes, the cleanup…" Hackett rubbed his temples. "We kind of need someone to head that."  
"Well what about you?"  
"I'm a military man Shepard, and I'm due to retire, especially with everything that has gone on in my career."  
"So you're dumping it on me? That's what it sounds like you want to do."  
"I'd like to leave it to the young ones who have so much life left." He laughed. Shepard did not. He grabbed the bridge of his nose and thought to himself for a moment.  
"Fine I'll do it, I'll lead the reconstruction." He looked hesitantly at Liara as he spoke those words.  
"That's much appreciated Commander. I'll get you set up with the right people."  
Hackett disappeared from the comm station. Shepard rested his head on Liara's and let out a big sigh.  
"I just can't get a rest, can I?"  
"No good deed goes unpunished Shepard." Liara giggled and moved to face him. "Don't worry I will be there every step of the way."  
Shepard returned to good spirits and kissed her on the forehead.  
"Well might as well get straight to work right?" Shepard sighed. "EDI?"  
The AI's voice chimed in overhead. "Yes Shepard?"  
"Can you call all the crewmates together I need to talk with them."  
"Of course, Commander."  
"Good." Shepard nodded his approval. Arm in arm the couple walked out of the war room and headed for the crew deck.

* * *

"You're leading WHAT?" Garrus exclaimed, a confused look on his face. "Haven't you done enough?"  
Shepard viewed all the other faces at the table. Garrus clearly had summed up what they were all thinking.  
"Shepard, you should let someone else do it." Tali suggested.  
"But I've been appointed Tali, there's nothing I can do now."  
A silence followed as everyone went deep into thought. Shepard put both hands on the table and looked down in defeat.  
"I wanted to ask for all your help with this. I can't do this without you guys." He pleaded.  
"We're here for you Shepard, no matter what. You know that."  
Shepard looked up to see that the faces had changed to those of support.  
"If we all help organize, we will get done faster." Liara chimed in. "And that means we can leave sooner after the FTL drives are installed.  
"Then let's get to work!" Joker got excited. When the ship was grounded, so was he. _Don't worry you'll be flying in no time, Joker... I hope._

* * *

Shepard stood before a small panel of Alliance personnel. They were the commanding officers in the engineering corps, and were Shepard's main help in the reconstruction process. Shepard was leading them through his plan for reconstruction.  
"Now we are only going to focus on Vancouver. This is the site of the Alliance capital and therefore needs to be rebuilt in order to get the Alliance in working order again."  
One engineer raised his hand. Shepard motioned to let him speak.  
"And why are we only focusing on Vancouver? The whole Earth is in shambles!"  
"Look at the political state that humanity is in. We were divided amongst all these other nations. The Alliance is our galactic face for the galaxy, and we need to make sure that's in tip top shape. Now if the other nations want to go on being their own thing, we will let them but we won't help them rebuild at all. Those that join the Alliance will be helped. Vancouver is just the start, it's an example for the rest of Earth. Let's unite humanity while we can."  
"What if the humans don't want to be united? It's in our nature to differ."  
"We can differ and still be under the same banner." Shepard spat back. _And one city to clean up means I get done faster._  
The engineer sighed but looked content with the answer.  
They debated for a little while where exactly they should start the cleanup and how to go about doing that. At the end of the meeting, Shepard decided to have a little walk around the city. Or what was left of it at least. He wanted to see with his own eyes the extent of the damage.

More selfishly, there was one place in particular that he wanted to see. He went to the old Alliance headquarters and retraced the path that he took with Anderson to escape. At some points it was hard because of all the rubble and debris, but nonetheless Shepard pressed on. He got to the office building that he and Anderson had entered during their escape. The roof had collapsed in on itself and Shepard climbed on top of the building. _I'm almost there._

He approached the place where he had made his stand with Anderson while they waited for the Normandy. He climbed up onto the wrecked gunship, now rusted all over, and made his way to the nearest building. On top of that roof lay the wreckage of several shuttles. _Here we are._

Shepard approached the shuttles.  
"I might not be able to see you, but I know that you're there little boy. Hear me this." He pointed triumphantly at the wrecks.  
"I beat you. I offered you help and you denied it, and yet you made me guilty." Shepard began to pace. "You died and you haunted my dreams. But I fought you, and beat you in the end. You might have been some indoctrination ploy, but I won. I'm free from you. I beat your curse." Those last words felt like an uplifted burden as they flew from his lips. He had beaten the Reapers physically, but he had never claimed victory for the battle against them on the inside as well. Shepard felt like he could fly. It was starting to get dark so Shepard headed back for the Normandy.

* * *

It was with that burden-less spirit that he greeted an exhausted Shadow Broker in the war room back on the Normandy.  
"You look happy." Liara observed as she stood working at one of her screens.  
"I am. Anything new from your agents?"  
"Actually something very interesting." Liara tore herself away from the screen to look at him. Shepard could see how exhausted she was. "The council survived everything on the citadel. Apparently when the Reapers came they hid in one of the airtight bunkers with several other dignitaries. They were there the whole time."  
"Gosh, politicians really are like cockroaches..." Shepard scratched his head in amazement. "I'm sure they have stuff that they want to discuss with me."  
"I would believe so." Liara answered with an enormous yawn. "And what are cockroaches?"  
Shepard laughed. "They are insects native to Earth that don't die no matter what you do to them. We revile them as well."  
Liara laughed. "I could envision politicians to be that." Again she let out another yawn.  
Without saying anything, Shepard took Liara's arm, and forced her to shut down the system. Despite her protests, he led her to their cabin to sleep.  
They quickly threw off their work clothes and slipped into bed. Wordlessly, Liara cuddled up in Shepard's embrace. They fell asleep together rather contently, eager for the sweet dreams of a new life.

_Shepard stood in a forest of burnt trees. Voices of his dead comrades all echoed around. A small distance away, Shepard could see a little boy hunched on the ground. The boy shivered from fear. Shepard ran to comfort the boy, but the boy ran away from Shepard before he could get to him. The boy disappeared behind a tree. The voices of his comrades got louder and louder, and Shepard searched for the boy.  
Again a small distance away the boy resurfaced and Shepard made his way over to him. Again the boy ran in fear from him and disappeared. Shepard searched for the boy again, and the voices grew even louder. Dark shades began to approach him. Shepard fought and pushed them away. Again the boy resurfaced and Shepard ran to him.  
When Shepard got to the boy, this time the boy did not run away. Instead it stood up and turned to face Shepard. The boy's eyes glowed yellow and he seemed unnatural. "Hello again, Shepard. Miss me? You have never won inside." The boy taunted before he ignited._

Shepard jolted up with a yell in bed. He brought a hand to his forehead. He was incredibly sweaty. He looked over to see a concerned Liara awake next to him. His body shivered from the perspiration. The dream sat vividly in his mind.  
"What's the matter love? Is everything alright?" Liara put a hand on his chest and shifted closer. Her touch calmed him.  
"I don't know... I... I had a nightmare."  
"It was just a dream Shepard, it's alright."  
"No." He replied rather definitively. "It was almost the same dream I got when we were fighting the Reapers." He dropped his head on her shoulder. "I... I just don't know."  
Liara kissed him and laid him back down.  
"Tell me about it, what was it like? I'm here for you." She whispered into his ear. She brought her arms around him and squeezed him tight.  
"No... not now."  
"Well tell me later when you are ready." They lay back down and she rested her head on his chest and fell back asleep rather quickly. But Shepard couldn't sleep. He lay in bed and listened to his bondmate's peaceful, steady breathing. As calming as it was, Shepard stayed awake the rest of the time. The dream still sat burning in his mind. There was no way that he would fall asleep. But nor did he want to.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's notes can be found on my blog.** Copy and paste this into your browser: (http:/)toomuchbrainfart(.)blogspot(.)com(/)2012(/)05(/)from-ashes-chapter-2(.)html (just remove the parenthesis so this doesn't get marked as spam. xD

Please read it I put a bunch of time and effort into it and don't want it all to be for naught because I put it on my blog. :D

Reviews are welcomed! Just a shoutout to one review in particular, chrizzle88 expressed interest in Shepard's internal strife. O yes, be VERY interested in that, it's a major part of this story as you will soon see. Answers will come in the next chapter though. :P (I'll be answering reviews of the previous chapters on my blog in the author's notes section just an fyi... another reason to go check it out!)

This is the second chapter of my From the Ashes story. From the Ashes is a continuation of the plot of my ME3 ending story A Little Ship Lost in Space. Just so you go into this story with no confusion, please read that one first! Thanks!

People looking for another chapter of No is for Naga, I got a little bit of a writers block, please forgive me! I'll be getting a chapter out soon though!

Bioware owns everything but the story... that's mine... I think (and hope).

* * *

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Shepard shut off the alarm at his desk. Liara began to stir. She wiped the sleep from her eyes and picked her head off of Shepard's chest.  
"Did you sleep ok?" She asked him.  
"I didn't sleep."  
"Oh Shepard." Liara hugged him and gave him a kiss. "You never told me what the dream was about. I'm all ears."  
"No, I was thinking it over during the night. I'm fine."  
"Jack, I'm here to help."  
"No." Shepard got up. "I said I figured it out, and that's that."  
He went to pull clothes on while Liara slowly got out of bed.  
"Is something the matter?" She asked, approaching him and putting a hand on his shoulder. Shepard shrugged her hand off.  
"Liara. I said its fine, stop dwelling on it." He pulled on a shirt. He turned and looked at Liara. She looked like she saw something wrong.  
"You're sure that you're ok?" She asked after a moment's hesitation. She ventured her hand back out to Shepard's shoulder. He shrugged off the hand yet again.  
"I'm fine."  
Once clothed, Shepard walked off without saying anything else.

* * *

Liara made her way down the elevator. Her mind raced. _What is wrong with Shepard? Was it something I did? I should have stayed up with him after that nightmare._ The elevator doors opened and Liara strolled onto the crew quarters level. She made her way to the kitchen. Garrus, Tali, and Javik were seated at the table eating breakfast.  
"Just admit it; our 'primitive' cycle was better than yours because you were never able to beat the Reapers." Garrus teased.  
"And yet I still stand here. You used the crucible to defeat the Reapers, which was of Prothean design. All your technology is based off of ours. Cease trying to look tough in front of the Quarian before I make you look like the fool that you are." Javik responded.  
"Oh but he's my fool." Tali laughed. She hugged Garrus. Everyone then took notice of Liara, who had walked in rather depressed.  
"Good morning Liara." Garrus and Tali greeted their friend. Javik eyed her suspiciously.  
"The asari is not well, she is depressed. Was it because of the Commander?"  
Liara did not answer. Tali stood up and went over to her. "Are you ok Liara?"  
She let out a sigh. "I don't know. Last night he said he had a nightmare like the ones he was having when fighting the Reapers. This morning he was just... different." Liara opened the refrigerator. "Does anyone know where he even is?"  
Tali shook her head. Garrus walked up to the two.  
"I didn't see him at all."  
"Commander Shepard took a shuttle approximately one hour ago off the ship headed for Earth." EDI's voice sounded overhead.  
Liara looked up. "Thanks EDI." She closed the refrigerator without taking anything out. "I need to go find him." She began to make her way past Garrus and Tali.  
"No you don't." Garrus stopped her. "I'll go find him. You should eat something." He went to his room to put on things suitable for outside.  
"And I'll make sure that you actually eat." Tali put a reassuring hand on Liara's shoulder. She rummaged something out of the fridge and brought Liara and the food over to the table. She put the food in front of Liara and made her sit down.  
"Now eat."  
Liara did as she was told.  
"In my cycle, a simple touch was all that was needed to convey feelings and to make sense of social situations." Javik stated. "I wonder how you manage."  
Tali looked up at Javik.  
"Shut up Javik, you're not helping." The annoyance in her voice apparent even to the most primitive minds, Javik folded his arms and faced the other direction.  
Garrus, who was just exiting his room now all suited up, began to clap on his way out.  
"That's my girl."

* * *

Shepard sat on a warehouse dock looking out on the Vancouver bay. He watched as a destroyer shot a deactivated Reaper to bits. _A just revenge for the one we lost when I was last here._ The Reaper's data had been downloaded for study, and Shepard wondered what it would tell them. His thoughts turned back to Liara, and how much of a jerk that he was to her that morning. Shepard had decided that he needed some time to clear his head and promptly went off the ship to be uninterrupted. He heard footsteps behind him. _So much for behind uninterrupted._  
"You know, it'd be wise not to make your bond mate who's also the Shadow Broker worried where you are." Shepard turned his head to see Garrus standing behind him. "If Tali hadn't stopped her, she would have sent every agent she had available on a search for you Shepard. She's barely ate anything and she paces the halls. We can't let her near any tech or datapads because she'll just hack them and contact her agents."  
Shepard did not respond. Garrus moved up to sit next to Shepard.  
"What's wrong Shepard?" He asked.  
Shepard still did not answer. He just didn't want to hear it. Turning his attention to the destroyer, he could see that it had shot several holes into the Reaper corpse. Garrus grabbed Shepard's shoulder and brought his face closer.  
"Shepard, listen to me. Liara is worried sick about you. First last night you complain about a nightmare that you had during the Reapers, and then this morning you totally buzz her off. She deserves an explanation... We deserve an explanation." Shepard sighed. "Talk to me Shepard. We can help you." Garrus pleaded.  
Shepard looked down at his feet for a moment. After a small pause, Shepard turned and looked at Garrus.  
"You can only help me if we know what the problem is. But I have no idea what's wrong." He looked away immediately and got up. He began to walk away.  
"What do you mean you don't know?" Garrus stood up as well and began to follow him. After a few steps Shepard stopped.  
"The Reapers attempted to indoctrinate me Garrus. They used an image of a little boy as their front to convert me. But that was before I activated the crucible. Last night I saw that kid again." He turned to Garrus, an almost desperate look in his eyes. "The Reapers are dead Garrus; I don't know why I'm still seeing him!" He pointed to the Reaper corpse in the bay. "Look, they sit helpless while we pummel them! They're dead! But then what is wrong with me?" He grabbed his head in anguish.  
Garrus didn't know what to say. "At least come back to the Normandy. So we know that you're safe. We can figure it out there."  
"Safe from what?" Shepard challenged. "The only thing I'm worried about is inside of me, I can't find a safe place from that."  
"But you have friends that will watch over and help you Shepard. At least it's better than nothing."  
Shepard calmed down with a deep breath. The destroyer finished up with its target and powered it's engines to move on to another Reaper. Garrus took notice of this.  
"Look the shows over here anyway, let's go." Garrus began to walk. Shepard followed Garrus at a rather slow pace. Nonetheless he boarded the shuttle with a patient Garrus and they set off back for the Normandy.

* * *

Shepard stood in the comm room waiting for Hackett to connect. Hackett had sent Shepard an email telling him to contact him immediately. Upon seeing the email, Shepard went straight to the comm room, he would not let personal matters get in the way of his duty. Liara was working in the war room next door. When he had first entered he had tried to apologize to her. She had simply told him that she needed some time alone. _I already gave you a lot of time alone when I was gone._ Shepard rubbed his temples. _The stress must be getting to me._ Hackett appeared on the comm unit.  
"Commander, good to see you, we have discovered a breakthrough. We have figured out how the mass relays work."  
Shepard did not hide his surprise. "So quickly? How do you know for sure that's how they work?"  
"When you have the minds that were working on the crucible working on this, it's no surprise how fast they figured it out. And with respect to the accuracy of their theories, so far the theories have held through in all of our tests."  
Shepard crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Tests?"  
Hackett got nervous. "We built scale models."  
Shepard did not buy it. "Building a 'scale model' of a mass relay takes a lot of time Hackett. I call bullshit. You reactivated the Charon relay didn't you?"  
Hackett avoided Shepard's eyes. "Now Commander, there are a lot of people here that want to go-"  
"No!" Shepard banged his fists on the console. "We are not going to be using Reaper technology anymore!" He pointed his finger menacingly at Hackett. "We are finding our own ways home. We can't succumb to laziness. We can't let the Reapers have any influence over us at all!"  
Hackett crossed his arms. "I see you are tired Shepard, and I know you didn't want reconstruction duty, but you do not talk to a superior officer like that!"  
"I'm a spectre. Why don't you look at where that fits into your stupid ranks."  
"Shepard! This-" Hackett never got to finish his statement as Shepard cut the line of communication. _I should have done that to the council back then…_ Shepard stormed past Liara in a huff.  
"I'm going to bed." He muttered as he left the room.

* * *

Shepard lay in bed. He didn't check the time, and he listened to the muffled sounds of the aquarium water. Part of him didn't want to go to bed as he just felt like he would have another nightmare. However another part of him wanted to sleep due to the lack of sleep from the previous night. His mind began to wander and he waited to see if Liara would eventually come up to the room. _She always forgets to sleep and eat when she gets into Shadow Broker mode._ Shepard was tempted to go get her, but he remembered her statement previous that she needed time alone. Shepard went back to listening to the aquarium. Eventually the latter part of him won over and Shepard fell asleep.

* * *

Shepard stood in a forest of burnt trees. Voices of his dead comrades all echoed around. A small distance away, Shepard could see a little boy hunched on the ground. _I know this._ The boy shivered from fear. Shepard ran to comfort the boy, but the boy ran away from Shepard before he could get to him. The boy disappeared behind a tree. The voices of his comrades got louder and louder. The boy reappeared in a different spot.  
Instead of running over, Shepard stayed where he was. _Time to change things up._  
"Hey you!" He pointed to the boy. "I'm not going to play you're petty little game. If you want to taunt me, come over and do it to my face."  
The boy disappeared.  
"I don't have to play by your rules Shepard." The voice boomed overhead. "So many rules set up in your head. Don't kill the innocent, love thy neighbor, do what's best for the universe."  
The boy materialized behind Shepard.  
"So paragon... ever feel a need for the other side? Ever need some balance in your life?"  
Shepard turned around and faced the boy. This time the boy towered over him, his glowing yellow eyes staring at him in hatred. "Here's what I say to your rules!" The boy lifted his foot and brought it down on Shepard.

Shepard woke up with a jolt. It took a moment for his senses to work, but once they did Shepard realized that he was on the floor half naked. The sweat from his body and the floor gave him shivers. Liara knelt over him, her face displaying the most intense worry.  
"Shepard talk to me, are you alright?"  
Shepard brought his body up.  
"No." He managed to get out before he began to break down. Liara threw her arms around him and began to cry too.  
They stayed together for a few moments. Shepard tried to pull away but Liara did not let go.  
"I need to wash my face. I'm still in a daze."  
"I'll be right behind you."  
Shepard did not protest and they went into the bathroom. Shepard splashed some water on his face. When he was done he turned back. Liara grabbed his right hand.  
"Shepard, let me merge with you and see what you saw." She put her hand on his cheek. "Let me help you."  
"Showing you will not help." Shepard began to walk back to the bed.  
"You can share the pain with me." Liara stopped him at the stairs. "I'm your bond mate. Let me help you... I love you." She caught him and kissed his cheek. "Let me at least try."  
Shepard thought for a moment. He then nodded. Liara led him to the couch where both sat down. She grabbed his hands and looked into his eyes.  
"Now clear your mind, Embrace Eternity!"

_The room peeled away until just the two of them were alone in the dark void. Liara put her arms around his chest.  
"Now show me." She commanded. Shepard nodded.  
In the darkness the boy's face appeared, on fire and with its glowing yellow eyes full of hatred. Liara felt Shepard's body tense. Like little whispers at first the boy's voice began repeating what he had said before. They grew louder and louder.  
"Hello Shepard, miss me?"  
"You have never won on the inside."  
"I don't play by your rules Shepard."  
"So many rules set up in your head."  
"Don't kill the innocent, love thy neighbor, do what's best for the universe."  
"So paragon... ever feel the need for the other side? Ever need some balance in your life?"  
"Here's what I say to your rules."  
Faster and faster, louder and louder the boy repeated the lines. Liara couldn't take it any longer. Her grip on him began to loosen. Shepard realized that it needed to stop.  
"ENOUGH!"  
With a swipe of his hand, the boy disappeared. Only the quiet sound of laughing could be heard. Then both consciousnesses went back into their own bodies._

Shepard opened his eyes. Upon seeing Liara, he looked away in shame.  
"All the time the boy is in my head. I don't know why, and I don't know how. I-"  
Liara put her arms around Shepard. She put a finger to his lips.  
"Shhhhh." She said and brought her lips to his.  
"You are the strongest person I know Shepard." She said once their lips parted. "I love you so much."  
Shepard sighed. "Liara I'm not going to go to sleep."  
Liara smiled. "Well there are better things we could do."  
With that, she removed her top and brought her lips to Shepard's again.  
Once they had kissed long enough, Shepard brought his lips all over her body, searching for just the right spot as Liara took off his remaining clothes.  
Liara stopped and made him pause. She looked at Shepard. "In the morning we will see Dr. Chakwas ok?"  
Shepard murmured something of an approval. Then both picked up where they left off, consummating their love in a fit of passion lasting the whole night.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note:** Sorry for the wait, but I had recently got a job teaching at my old taekwondo school. Between the many hours teaching and then staying up to write (I find that my optimal time to write is at night) I just crashed. I'm still tired, but I am getting used to it now. Also, the content of this chapter took a while and a lot of effort to write. So add that into the time equation. There is also an author's note at the bottom about the content in this chapter. **PLEASE READ IT, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT. **

Enjoy!

* * *

"Commander Shepard, we do not feel that it is neither very practical nor very cost effective to totally shun mass relay technology." The holo of Asari Councilor Tevos spoke. "I feel it would be best to phase it out of normal society slowly."  
The other councilors nodded.  
"It would not be very cost effective either. You'd be bankrupting the galaxy with a project like that!" This time it was Salarian Councilor Valern.  
"Mass Relays also work to help keep things contained. Using long range FTL technology would destabilize every species' defense strategies." Turian Councilor Sparatus also added in.  
Human temporary councilor Osoba stayed silent. _I wonder what lies they filled him with._  
"You doubted me before and look what happened. It's best we leave the Reaper tech in the dust where it belongs. We don't want to become like them. Using their technology will only lead us down that path."  
"Commander, if that is the case, the path you wish to lead us down will ruin us as well." Shepard could tell that Tevos' gentle voice had a slight twinge of annoyance in it. _I should be the one that is annoyed right now._  
"We need change and right now with the galaxy as it is, the best time is now to introduce that change."  
"No, the best way to introduce change is slowly over the years." Tevos replied.  
"You forget that everything we have ever known in terms of long range space travel involves mass relays." Added Valern. "You can't just throw away everything we have and start from scratch!"  
Liara presented herself at the doorway to the comm room. Shepard took notice but was currently busy with the council. He gave her a look of frustration.  
"Shepard we can still see you and the faces that you are making." Councilor Sparatus' voice came in.  
Shepard turned his attention back to them and responded with the click of the off button. The holos of the councilors disappeared instantly.  
"Now you can't." He responded. He turned to Liara. "Damn politicians. It's almost as if it was better if I didn't save them from Sovereign."  
"Shepard don't let them get you down. They are just doing what they think is right... And remember, the right thing for you right now is going to Chakwas and telling her about your dreams."  
"Oh... right... well one more thing." He turned back to the console.  
Liara grabbed his arm. "Let's go."  
After a several attempts to tug Shepard out the door, he yielded and they made their way to the med bay where Dr. Chakwas was.

* * *

"Shepard and Liara how may I help you?" Dr. Chakwas greeted the couple from her desk as they walked into the med bay. "How are your injuries from London healing up?"  
"I'm good... as always." Shepard responded with a grin.  
Liara looked at Shepard and then back to Chakwas. "Actually, we have something to talk you about. Shepard has been having these dreams, bad ones, ones that he had when fighting the Reapers. We are worried that something is up with him."  
"Doc they're just dreams, Liara is just overreacting." Shepard replied. Liara eyed him suspiciously. _So this is the game you are going to play._  
Chakwas crossed her arms. "Well it would never hurt to check you out Commander."  
"But that's really not ne-"  
"You denying a simple body scan isn't helping anything, Commander. I will talk with my colleagues at the Vancouver Memorial Hospital to see if we could use their body scanner for you. One moment…" She moved back to her computer and messaged one of her colleagues. Within moments she got an approval to use the scanner. She got up and faced the couple again. "I reserved the scanner for a 1 hour time slot in 2 hours." She looked at Shepard's bewildered face. "Don't worry it won't take that long."  
Shepard breathed a sigh of relief and both turned to leave.  
"Liara, can you stay a moment, I need to go over your medicine regiment that I gave you. I think I made a mistake."  
"You go on ahead." She whispered into Shepard's ear. Shepard left the room and Liara walked back to Chakwas. Chakwas watched the med bay door close.  
"Now Liara, take a seat on the table and do tell me everything about Shepard's dreams." Chakwas picked up a cup of hot tea. "Would you like some tea?"  
Liara sat up on one of the medical tables. "No I'm fine; I don't know where to start, Dr. Chakwas. Shepard is scaring me. First of all his personality is changing; just recently he cut off Admiral Hackett and the Council during their talks with him when they weren't listening to him. He's never done that before… He's also been more aggressive and violent, and sometimes childish, and not just to me." She sighed. "But the dreams… I melded with him and he showed them to me. They were... terrifying. When we were fighting the Reapers, I guess a small boy haunted him and was the main indoctrinating front on Shepard. That boy is now attacking Shepard directly in the dreams, not subtly attempting to indoctrinate him. It's almost as if it's an internal moral or power struggle. Just the things the boy said, a Reaper would never have said that, because it never would have taken him along the path of indoctrination." Liara paused to collect more thoughts. She took a breath, trying to dam the waves of emotion welling up inside. "I don't know how to explain it, it's almost like there's another personality growing inside him. When I touch him, there are times when he feels normal, and others when he feels... different. I'm scared that this boy is not just confined to his dreams."  
Chakwas was silent in deliberation, she rubbed her chin. After a minute or so, she snapped back into the real world.  
"I don't know what this means child, but we must find out." She put a hand on Liara's shoulder. "I'll see you in 2 hours at the hospital. Only then will we know what's wrong with Shepard." She turned back to her computer. "But first I need to actually reserve the scanner."

* * *

"OW!" howled Shepard. "Small needle my ass! That was gigantic." He rubbed his arm.  
"Shepard, you know I needed your muscles relaxed." Dr. Chakwas looked down at her patient, who was sitting on a small bench. "It was merely a sedative to keep your synthetics from causing spasms. This scanning equipment can do that." She motioned to the large machine resembling a CAT scan.  
"Please lay down on the table Shepard so we can begin to scan."  
Chakwas watched as Shepard complied. She walked out of the room, sealing the door behind her and proceeded to the control room for the scanner. Liara was there already and watched Shepard through a glass wall that separated the two rooms. Her arms were crossed, and Chakwas could tell that the emotional toll on her was great.  
"Thank you again doctor for getting the scanning equipment." Liara began, a sincere gratefulness present in her voice.  
"It is a pleasure, Liara." Chakwas flicked a switch and started the machine. "Now let's see what's been going on with Shepard."  
The bed that Shepard was laying on moved fully into the machine. The machine was doing nothing discernible to the eye, but the data that was pouring in on Chakwas' readout suggested otherwise. Chakwas turned off the display.  
"Now I didn't tell Shepard this, but it will be around 10 minutes of scanning." She got up from her chair. "Would you like to go to the cafe with me for a snack or drink?"  
Liara shook her head. "No that will be fine doctor."  
"Well I'll be back in a short while."  
Liara brought herself back to the glass and watched the machine at work. Dr. Chakwas left the room. "Shepard I will find out what's wrong with you and fix it, no matter what the cost. I promise." A tear ran down her cheek, as she worried about Shepard.

* * *

Around the 9 minute mark, Chakwas returned to the controls.  
"You should try the tarts they have at the cafe, they are delicious." She spoke to try to distract Liara.  
"I should, but I will later. Once all this mess is over with." Liara responded, not taking her eyes of the machine.  
"It's hard to watch those that you love in trouble. I've seen the same look on the dozens of spouses of soldiers I treated as I do on you."  
Liara turned. Chakwas could see a tear run down her face. "I just want him to be better. I will have so little time with him in my life; every moment is just so precious."  
"I understand what you mean." Chakwas glanced back to the display. "By the looks of it Shepard will be out very soon."  
Liara followed Chakwas out the control room and into the room with the scanner. Chakwas stopped at the door.  
"I will need a little bit of time to go over the data with some other doctors. Meet us in the conference room on this floor in two hours."  
"Of course."  
Chakwas then opened the door and went back to the control room to get the data. Liara walked in to get Shepard.

* * *

The couple walked into the conference room. Dr. Chakwas was seated at the far end, and was flanked by several other human doctors. Chakwas beckoned Shepard and Liara to sit down.  
"Hello Shepard, Liara." She motioned to the human flanking her on her left. "This here is the head psychologist at this hospital, Dr. John Morrow." She then motioned to her right. "And this is the head of the hospital, Dr. James Donahue." Both nodded a greeting to the couple. "To Dr. Morrow's left we have Dr. Bernard Shin, he was another researcher that worked on Project Lazarus with Cerberus. To Dr. Donahue's right we have the head bio-synthetic fusion surgeon at this hospital Dr. Oppsokopolis. Finally, we have Mr. Hansen, the scanner technician of the hospital." Liara nodded a greeting to all of them. Chakwas continued. "Together we have been going through the data collected from the scan and discussing our conclusions." Chakwas projected the data from a terminal that was built into her end of the table.  
"The scan found out something quite interesting. During the Reaper's attempts to indoctrinate you, Reaper nanites were introduced into your system."  
Liara nodded. "Yes, that's how we found out how the Reapers made husks on Horizon. Some of the data salvaged from there also stated how they discovered that indoctrination was assisted by these nanites."  
"Yes Liara, that is correct. The nanites would help amplify the Reaper indoctrination signals so a Reaper would not have to be in your vicinity to indoctrinate you. And when your mind resisted indoctrination, your body also rejected the nanites." Chakwas paused. "However that statement is only partially true."  
Shepard sat up. "What do you mean?"  
Chakwas motioned to Mr. Hansen. He cleared his throat and a new diagram of Shepard's body was projected. Red dots blinked at certain locations located all over his body.  
"The scan shows large concentrations of those Reaper nanites located at the sites of Shepard's synthetics. We have been discussing what this could mean, and our theory is that your organic parts were able to reject the nanites, however there is no way for your synthetics to reject the nanites. So either all the rejected nanites went to the synthetic sites, or the nanites present at the synthetics were never rejected at all. In addition, the scans show that these nanites seem to be actively amplifying some signal, similar to indoctrination."  
Liara put her hand on Shepard's. "Does that mean... that Shepard's indoctrinated?"  
Hansen shook his head. "No, the nanites can only amplify Reaper indoctrination signals, and since we are sure of no more Reapers are active, there are no Reaper signals that they can amplify."  
Liara let out a sigh of relief. But that did not wipe the anxious look off her face.  
"But there is more to it. The nanites aren't just present at the synthetics, they bonded with them. As a result, his synthetics embody all the characteristics of Reaper tech; just like a husk, Shepard's synthetics are stronger, faster, and are far more efficient. It's almost as if the Reaper's wanted Shepard to become almost like a super husk if he succumbed to indoctrination. But with the Reapers gone from the equation, we deduce that these nanites enhanced synthetics can elevate Shepard's life expectancy to that closer to an asari's."  
Dr. Shin raised a hand to speak. "But there are disadvantages to this. With no Reaper signals to act off of, the nanites don't know what to do. They amplify signals, and with no Reaper signals, they search for any signal that they can get a hold of… Now what we theorize is that the brain signals from Shepard's subconscious are now being amplified by the nanites."  
Dr. Morrow then butted in to combat Liara's confused and disbelieving look. "To make it clear, the nanites have almost made a second personality for Shepard." He then directly addressed Shepard. "Shepard, the mental trauma that you faced was enough to drive others literally insane. Your brain had to deal with it in some way. So it locked all that trauma away into your subconscious to be dealt with later as is the case in some people. What else was locked up in your subconscious were thoughts, notions, and decisions that you actively suppressed; in other words, due to your paragon actions, your renegade thoughts were locked up. The nanites needed some signal to amplify, and since the Reaper's signal was not present, they went to the next available thing, their host. We don't know why it went after the subconscious but after getting an account of the content of your dreams, we feel that this is the case."  
Shepard shook his head. He remained strangely calm and detatched. _Has he been paying attention at all?_ Shepard caught Liara's glance. He looked back up to the doctors to avoid it. "So what happens now if all these theories are true?"  
"Well the best long term solution would be to replace all your affected synthetics, Shepard. But we all know that will kill you." Dr. Shin mentioned.  
"As a psychologist, I recommend some way of facing this other personality and overcoming it before it gains any more control." Dr. Morrow suggested.  
"And how would I do that doctor?"  
"I can set up regular sessions with you starting tomorrow."  
Shepard shook his head. "I don't do well with things that I can't see. I need to fight this "personality" in my brain head on."  
Liara spoke up. "Shepard, maybe this is something that you can't fight head on."  
"No, I can fight it head on."  
"Shepard, listen to Liara." Dr. Morrow suggested.  
"No, I will fight it head on."  
"Shepard, listen to me, therapy could help you. What exactly will you be fighting head on in your head anyway? You can't beat it through brute force."  
Shepard stood up. "I've had enough. Good day." He strode out of the conference room, sucking out all happiness in his wake. Liara looked defeated at the others sitting in the conference room. Dr. Morrow was jotting furiously on a notepad. "All throughout the meeting he did not pay attention and behaved in irregular patterns than the usual. The transition to hostility occurred during the meeting when we suggested that Shepard is ill and needs help. It was accelerated to the point where he had to leave when I suggested help. At that point he got rather defensive and barreled out of the room. Renegade actions indeed..." He looked up from his notes. "I feel bad for the people that are in his path out of the hospital."  
Chakwas stood up. "Looks like our theories are right. We need to figure out what to do with him."  
They began to debate on what to do.

* * *

Shepard stood huddled in front of the Alliance shuttle wreckage. It was around an hour after the meeting. Shepard just didn't want to think about it. His hands tinkered with wires that connected to a small bomb. Shepard hummed to himself as he worked. Once his work was done he stood up and clapped his hands together. He nodded at his handwork. Wires went all over the shuttles, all leading to several explosives. Shepard viewed the remote detonator in his hand. He smiled.  
"It's time for you to leave boy. It's time to destroy you in the world and in my mind... Out of sight, out of mind."  
Shepard sighed.  
"It's time to get my life back, and I'm doing it alone. Cause I'm fucking Commander Shepard."  
Shepard began to walk away to a safe distance. _Born from the fires of the explosion, Shepard will be born anew._

* * *

Liara, who was still sitting in with the doctors, was starting to get worried about where Shepard had gone. _He probably went back to the Normandy._ She messaged to EDI on her omnitool to see if Shepard was there. Almost immediately EDI's response popped up: 'All is quiet on this end. You sure he went back to the Normandy?'  
Liara did not like what she was reading. She stood up. The other doctors looked up at her.  
"We don't know where Shepard has gone."

"What do you mean?" Chakwas responded.

"Shepard left and did not go back to the Normandy. EDI confirmed this."  
Everyone sat in a shocked silence.  
"Then we need to find him."  
Liara bolted out of the hospital. _If I were a crazy Shepard, where would I go?_  
Just then the ground shook and Liara looked to see a ball of fire rise up in the air.  
"Shepard." She muttered under her breath as she sprinted to the explosion.

* * *

***The Important Author's Note***  
So I set myself up for something big. Shepard still has the bad indoctrination type dreams and no one knows why. I had promised some answers in this chapter, and I delivered. But the answers are probably not what you thought. I just want to go through my though patterns so you can understand where I am coming from.  
I like to surprise and to keep people guessing. I also don't like to take the bland approach. Several of you out there have wondered aloud what your thoughts are, maybe the Reapers aren't all dead? Or maybe it's something to do with the relay? Well its different than that. Although I could have gotten creative with the relay, the possibility of a Reaper survival would seem bland and... unoriginal. I feel that there are others that can do that. Instead I went a totally different direction, as compelled by need-to-be-unique drive inside.  
Let's think for a little bit. In the video game series, even though the missions that they took were deemed impossible, somehow Shepard always managed to break through. Yes he had help along the way, but it was mainly through Shepard's leadership and usual bad-assery that shined through. Furthermore, every single important decision was made by Shepard, no one else. That's fine and dandy, but I wanted something different, something that Shepard just can't solve. Something where he is a factor of the decision and not the decider.  
So I shot out lots and lots of ideas, and the more I shot out ideas, they all began to converge at one location, the psyche. Shepard is a soldier and constantly deals with the physical. When someone dies he locks it up to deal with later. He is very strong willed, but eventually even his will has to break.  
And so the idea that I came up with in the story was born. An evil menace is presented, but it is inside Shepard. The Reapers get the last laugh. The very renegade thoughts that he suppressed begin to haunt him. Shepard's life is extended greatly, but it seems like he will have to deal with his evil side the whole time; obviously a life not worth living right? It gets to the point that Shepard is not able to fight it, it begins to consume him.  
This leaves it up to Liara and the rest of the crew to help him. He is now the helpless victim that needs saving. It's time for the crew to help the one that they thought never needed help. If you read A Little Ship in Space, I'm sure you can realize that I wanted more of a romance story for whatever romance option Shepard chose in ME3, in my case it was Liara. Now it might not me your take on it, but in a relationship I feel that both sides need to be helped by and help the other side. That would make it a sort of balance relationship right?  
Anyway, that's what I'm going for here. It is indeed the rise from the ashes for Earth, but it is also the rise from the ashes for Shepard as well. I acknowledge that my writing is not amazing but please bear with it as I attempt my vision for this fan-fiction.  
I write not just for myself or because I think it's fun. The people that read my stuff are a big deal as well in my writing. That's why I want to ask you all to write a review and tell me what you think of this twist. If no one likes it, the next chapter will be my backup plot I wrote in case this went sour (don't worry I was prepared). But if you like it, please tell me, it would make my day and I wouldn't have to write on without worrying if people like it. Every review I get I read and take into account. It makes my day every day to know that there are people that like my stuff.  
Anyway, thanks for bearing with this really long author's note (especially this sappy last paragraph), but I didn't want to just post a link to my blog that only like 5 people would go and read.  
Thank you all, you're awesome!

_**NotCras**_


	4. Chapter 4

***Author's note:** So all I will say is that I'm ditching the blog author's notes on here, BUT there's not much to say for this chapter. First of all, looks like you guys liked my twist! I'm so happy that the risk paid off! Anyway, its now time for you too see how far renegade Shep has come with his... erm renegadeness. And just to be clear, this is EVIL renegade not I'm still saving the galaxy renegade. This chapter might strike you guys as a little odd, but just bear with me you'll see how it all fits... I think. xD I always liked Shiala and wanted her to have more of a part in ME, and you will see that more part in the coming chapters.  
Last chapter there was also a complaint about the spacing of the words and how its hard to read. I tried tweaking it a little, please tell me if this is better, and I will then apply this to all my pieces so they are all easier to read. Enjoy!

Remember, everything except the actual story belongs to Bioware, this story is part of a series of stories, the first being A Little Ship Lost in Space, and then this. For those that have stuck with me from the beginning, you are awesome! :D

* * *

_O Shepard, what has happened to you?_

Liara sat on the couch in the captain's quarters staring at a picture frame. The picture it contained was of Liara and Shepard together, holding hands and looking out onto the citadel. Shepard had once told her that as he went around the galaxy fighting the collectors, he had that frame display a picture of Liara, so that she was always there when he needed her.  
And now it seems that the tables have turned.

_Where can you be?_

She looked at Shepard in the picture, almost asking the questions that popped up in her mind to it. She had checked the wreckage of the shuttles that Shepard had blown up. Shepard was nowhere to be found.

_And why the shuttles? What purpose did that hold?_

No one knew why Shepard had blown up the wreckage of shuttles, not when they were scheduled for demolition in a week. One theory was suicide. Liara knew in her heart that Shepard was alive, and that was enough for her to dispel that theory. This renegade Shepard would never do that either.

_Maybe Shepard's mind is just more messed up than we all thought?_

Liara hoped that it wasn't the case, but was all the more driven to finding Shepard. This different Shepard was alien to her. The old Shepard she knew by heart; from all his mannerisms to what side of the bed he preferred, to what flavors of ice cream he loved. But this one was privy to an outburst at the slightest disturbance, and cared only for himself.

_But the Shepard I know is still there, just buried_.

Liara heard the doors to the cabin open and several feet enter the room. She stood up, placing the picture frame back onto the coffee table where it had been previous. It was Garrus and Tali, holding hands as they approached Liara. Liara couldn't help but notice the hand holding, and longed for her own hand to hold. By that time they were talking to her already, and she snapped their voices into focus.

"-worried and so you're going to come with us for some fun." Garrus was saying.

Liara sighed. She sat back down.

"I won't be joining you."

"Liara, you're worried sick, we need to help you relieve some stress."

Liara stood up, assuming an aggressive stance. "THAT'S BECAUSE YOU KNOW WHERE THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE IS." She yelled.

Immediately she broke down and fell back down onto the couch. Tali approached the couch and sat down next to the crying asari.

"It's ok Liara. You know Shepard knows how to take care of himself."

"But not this different Shepard!" She sobbed.

Garrus sat down on Liara's other side.

"What do you mean, different Shepard?"

"Shepard's synthetics couldn't reject the nanites, and now they are slowly taking him over with a renegade self."

Tali cocked her head in confusion. "What nanites? Liara what are you talking about?"

Liara took a deep breath.

"When the Reapers tried to indoctrinate Shepard, Reaper nanites infiltrated his body to help the indoctrination process. When Shepard rejected indoctrination, his body rejected the nanites."

Tali raised a hand in understanding. "And his synthetics couldn't, resulting in a buildup of nanites at his synthetics."

Liara nodded. "But now instead of amplifying indoctrination, since there are no more reapers, they are amplifying his subconscious, and turning Shepard into a terrible renegade."

Tali put a hand up to her port.

"Keelah... and now you don't know where he is."

Liara could only nod as she held back tears.

"I have to find him and figure out some way to fix him."

Tali put a hand on her shoulder.

"We got your back Liara."

Garrus also put a hand on Liara's other shoulder.

"I might not understand all that technical stuff but if Shepard needs help, I'm in."

Liara smiled, something that she hadn't done in a while.

* * *

It was the only place where no one would think to look for him.

_Why didn't I think to hide in the hospital in the first place?_

Shepard walked around the quiet halls of Vancouver Memorial Hospital. He had watched Dr. Chakwas leave for the Normandy, and those other doctors make their ways to their homes and families. The rest of the doctors that were in the hospital at the time wouldn't know of his supposed issue. All was right as Shepard made his way to the food court of the hospital. Because of all the soldiers that were being treated, the food court was open 24/7, handing out food to those that needed it, and selling food to those that could afford it. Although the system was honor based, everyone was happy to help or be helped.

Shepard found a table and sat down. He was alone at it, but he didn't mind at all. There were times that it was nice to be alone. In the tables surrounding him, soldiers of all species chatted and shared stories. These were the survivors, the truly strongest and most skilled that each species had to offer. Those that claimed being lucky didn't realize that having good luck is a skill. Shepard wondered if anyone he knew was here.

"Commander Shepard, it is a surprise to see you here."

A familiar voice answered the question in his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something green approach the table. Upon turning his head, he saw that it was Shiala, the green asari commando that he had saved from the thorian on feros.

"Long time no see." He responded. "And so much has happened."

"Might I sit?" She motioned to a vacant chair at his table.

"Of course you can."

She sat down.

"What is the great Commander Shepard doing here on Earth?" She asked, crossing both her arms and placing them on the table. "Don't you have the Normandy and the crew?"

"The reconstruction of Vancouver is what I'm doing. You'd think they'd want someone else to do it. I just wreck stuff."

Shiala laughed. "Well I could help, I've got some experience with the Feros colony."

"That won't be necessary, I'm quitting really soon."

"Why?"

"Head's just not in it anymore. I've got other things to worry about."

"Like what?"

Shepard surveyed her body language and disposition to him, remembering his previous encounters with her, he came to a conclusion. _She wants me alright… That's good because Shepard gets what HE wants._

Shepard feigned a depressed look.

"Love just doesn't last now does it?"

Shiala expressed surprise and sympathy.

"I'm so sorry. Are you... are you ok?"

Shepard looked down.

"I just miss the company. I'm kinda on my own here."

Shiala looked away. "I know what you feel."

"What do you mean?"

"The Ferocious of Feros they called us. We fought with such ferocity and fluidity; we were the perfect fighting unit. We thought we were invincible..."  
Her voice trailed off and she shook her head.

"What happened?"

"We must have made quite the scene back in London. A Reaper capital ship came down and wiped us all out with its laser. I was the only one left... I felt all their pain and suffering though. None of them died right away." She looked off in the distance, almost lost in the memory. "I used to be comforted by their thoughts and our connection, but now the silence that has replaced them is just... unbearable."

Shepard had gotten up and made his way to Shiala. He slid his arms around her.

"It's ok. We can be here for each other."

Eventually Shiala brought her arms around Shepard.

"What were your last words to me when we last spoke?" Shepard asked her.

"I was just trying to flirt with you commander. Something about when I'm not helping the feros colony and you not doing galaxy saving stuff." She answered. She looked away. "But that was a while ago."

"No it wasn't. Look at us now, both of us with no business to attend to..."

"Shepard, are you making a pass at me?"

"If I was, I'd do this." He kissed her on the lips. He parted slowly. "I want you." He whispered into her ear. Shiala smiled.

Both left the hospital together and they made their way to an abandoned building. The building itself was still stable, most of the frame was still present, however the inside was abandoned and empty. Shepard lead her inside. No words needed to be spoken. Both came together as their bodies intertwined. Shepard felt something savage develop inside him, and he let it out on Shiala. When Shepard was finished with her, a trembling Shiala melded minds with Shepard, as was customary for asari after sex.

_Darkness approached from all sides until they were the only ones in a void of darkness. Shepard grabbed Shiala's hands and they stared into each other's eyes, savoring the moment. Shepard couldn't help but notice another Shepard off in the distance. He let go of Shiala's hands and made his was towards the other Shepard. Shiala followed suit.  
Shepard approached his other. As he did, he realized that he had morphed into the child that had tormented his dreams earlier.  
"Are you happy now?" The Shepard began to yell. "I listened and look at all that has happened!"  
"Things are only just turning around." Shepard answered.  
"Turning around from what? I was happy!"  
Shepard took a step back. The darkness gave way to the conference room at the hospital. Chakwas was standing and pointing at the real Shepard. In Dr. Morrow's voice, Chakwas spoke.  
"Shepard, the mental trauma that you faced was enough to drive others literally insane. Your brain had to deal with it in some way. So it locked all that trauma away into your subconscious to be dealt with later as is the case in some people. What else was locked up in your subconscious were thoughts, notions, and decisions that you actively suppressed; in other words, due to your paragon actions, your renegade thoughts were locked up. The nanites needed some signal to amplify, and since the Reaper's signal was not present, they went to the next available thing, their host."  
Liara was also present in the scene. She was facing the real Shepard.  
"I know you're in there Shepard." She said, a tear running down her face as she stared into his eyes.  
Shepard began to run in the other direction but slammed right into Shiala._

And they were back in their own minds. Shiala pulled away from Shepard.

"I know how it feels for your mind not to be your own." She looked out a broken window of the building. "But ditching your bondmate and seducing another asari is not the right thing to do."

Shepard laughed. "I'm done with her. She doesn't understand what I'm trying to become."

Shiala faced Shepard. "And what are you trying to become? No you're not done with her. The fact that she was there tells me she is not." She looked away, talking to herself. "How could I be so stupid!" Again she faced Shepard. "WHY DID YOU DO THIS? WAS I SOME FANTASY TO YOU?" Her biotics flared up and bits and pieces of rubble began shifting around randomly. Immediately she regained her composure. Shepard spoke before she could say anything.

"Maybe I wanted something more, something exotic."

Shiala sighed and looked away.

"Shepard, you need help... or maybe you're not the real Shepard. You should go back to the Normandy and find Liara."

"I will not. I don't need help."

Shiala shook her head.

"How can you be so blind? If you won't help yourself, I care enough to get you help." She began to make her way out of the building. But Shepard blocked her way out.  
"Now you're not." Shepard challenged.

_She told me herself that her biotics are unstable, and I can match her in hand to hand. I can take her._

He shoved her backwards. "Who would believe a crazy green asari that Commander Shepard has gone crazy?" He took a step forward. "I ought to teach you to know when to shut your mouth." He took another step, raising his fist. Shiala looked up helplessly on the ground.

"Shepard, look at what you are doing! Look at what you have become!"

Shepard looked away and brought his fist down. It pounded the ground right next to Shiala. He then swung his hand and pushed Shiala over.

"Next time, you're done."

He turned and sprinted out the door that Shiala had attempted to escape from. Shiala watched him leave, standing up and holding her hands to her belly. A tear ran down her cheek and she quickly rubbed it out.

"If only he knew what he had done." She muttered to herself before making her way out the building.

* * *

Liara's omnitool lit up to indicate that she had received a message. She had been talking to Garrus and Tali about the good old days when the Reapers terrified the galaxy and Shepard was sane. Before she checked the message, she gave Garrus and Tali an anxious look.

_I told the agents, only a message if Shepard is spotted._

She opened the message.

Subject: Shepard

_Around 2216 hours at initial sighting. Shepard spotted leaving hospital with green asari, named Shiala. Spent most of the night in abandoned building. Shepard left in a hurry._

Liara scrolled down to see that there was a video attached. She played it, but hid it from the others. Moments later, Garrus and Tali watched Liara flare up in a biotic rage and throw the coffee table across the room onto the bed. She ran out of the room with a scream of anguish.

A scream of a lover scorned.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's note:** So here we get to chapter 5. Just want to go over somethings that other people have said, not really on here, but on deviant art. I felt it was important enough for everyone else to see it.

Buzzz1 wrote: "Damn this is good.  
At first I thought that shepard would never cheat on liara, then I realised he wasn't himself. A question though. If shepard was strong enough to fight of the reaper indoctrination, why isn't he now? Even if the nanites are present in his synthetics, the mental renegade shepard is not in the synthetic parts. The paragon part should have the upper hand, as it did with the inoctrination. I hope they have a good psychiatrist over there "

**Here** is my answer, its a little long, but I just want to explain things thoroughly for you guys: "First of all, I love all these questions cause they help me think but also help others understand the story better. Sometimes I have no idea how to fit certain things into the story, and your questions usually hit them perfectly on the spot so I can answer them. Or I never had thought of certain things until you asked about it. This question is big and so it deserves a big reply... IM SORRY IN ADVANCE. xD  
Shepard is unable to fight the renegade-ness because it is originating within himself. Indoctrination, although the nanites were inside him, involves inserting foreign ideas into the mind to attempt to sway the person. Shepard survived indoctrination because he has an incredibly strong will that was able to fight these foreign thoughts.  
Now the mental Shep (what I'll refer to as the renegade Shepard personality) is something that has developed in his own mind. Just think, he's decided against renegade things ranging from killing the rachni queen to suppressing the thoughts to kill annoying characters. In fact, Shepard could have just killed EVERYONE in his path. But he didn't do it. He theoretically could have banged every squad mate (bear with me I know you couldn't do it in real game, but if this was real life...) Instead, he stuffed all renegade thoughts into his subconscious in favor of a paragon personality.  
There the nanites took over. They began to amplify the subconscious renegade thoughts that Shepard has suppressed. Now imagine you are dealing with temptation and your own personal demons. One by one, its still a challenge sometimes right? Now imagine all of them getting at you at once. You'd get overwhelmed right? That's what happened to Shepard. All those renegade thoughts surfaced at once, and amplified by the nanites no less. Obviously those extreme renegade thoughts were shut down because they opposed the paragon thoughts most, but many others slipped the cracks. Once those started to slip the cracks, other renegade thoughts became easier to accept. Thus starts a terrible moral dilemma inside Shepard's head.  
All leading to the terrible state that Shepard is in. I tried to show that he isn't purely converted, first in his consciousness with Shiala, and also when she talks him down. Paragon Shep hasn't given up the fight just yet, but its hard.

"A house divided cannot stand." Shepard is definitely divided that's for sure.  
Also, about the nanites being in his synthetics but the mental shep is in his mind, in indoctrination, aren't the nanites present in the body but affect the mind as well? Hmmm Just thinking, might want to fix the explanation to take account for a better explanation for that.

I hope these are the answers that you were seeking. "

For those of you that do have questions, don't hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of them! Kinda had to rush this out, but I don't think I forgot anything.

**AND NOW BACK TO YOUR NON-REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM**

* * *

_I've had enough._

Liara piloted the shuttle out of the Normandy's shuttle bay and down to the surface of Earth.

"Agent report!" She commanded into her omni-tool.

"Commander Shepard has entered the Liquid Heaven, a bar in Vancouver. He has remained there for two hours, Shadow Broker." A voice protruded from the omni-tool in response.

"Continue surveillance. I want an immediate update if his position changes." She answered. _So he's crazy, and now a high chance that he's drunk as well… Great._ She pushed the throttle to the max as she sent the shuttle for the bar.

"Yes, Shadow Broker."

She found a suitable parking space and landed hastily. She sprinted out of the shuttle and made the short distance to the bar on foot. _Here goes nothing._

"Agent, cease surveillance." She spoke into the omni-tool.

"Order acknowledged, Shadow Broker." The agent responded. _I don't want myself to be compromised by my own agents. I'm the Shadow Broker._

She took a deep breath and entered the bar. The bar was mostly empty, and a thick haze of cigarette smoke made it hard to analyze faces for Shepard. She walked to around, taking a casual stop to check out the patrons. She had just walked past a booth when a shot glass came flying at her, just barely missing her face and hitting the wall behind her.

"Bitch." Shepard's voice spoke to her left. Immediately she let out a biotic blast in that direction. She heard the biotics connect with a target and then heard the thud of the body hit the floor. _If it was Shepard, that definitely would not have killed him. But that's not it just yet._

She walked toward the body on the floor. The body lay face first on the ground, with no movement whatsoever. _Did I miscalculate?_ She turned the body over.

As Liara turned his body over, Shepard kicked upwards, feeling his foot knock into Liara's skull. He knew asari physiology, and a broken crest was just like a broken nose to a human, but all over the head. She fell over but regained quickly with a graceful roll.

"What was that? Are you trying to kill me?" He shouted. _Making a scene will force her to reconsider._ He looked around for support from the patrons, but they were all leaving from the scene. Even the bartender locked himself up in the back room. _Must get more action than I think they do._

Liara answered with a biotic pull. Shepard levitated in the air for a second. _Here it comes. _Shepard then slammed into the floor. He quickly stood up as he had braced for impact and threw another shot glass at Liara. She dodged the bottle this time with a cartwheel, but Shepard was on her in seconds. She was stuck in a grapple in no time. Shepard moved his head close to her right ear.

"I want you to know, I'm different now. I now realize that those that I helped, those that are now better because of me, are weak. Just like you. You can't accept that your beloved Shepard is done with you."

Liara struggled in the grapple. "Stop... Shepard please stop you need help."

Shepard laughed quietly. "No, I want you to think about it, it's the truth. You are nothing; I should have left you before." He shifted his hold on her in the grapple, causing pain to Liara. Her eyes began to tear up.

"Stop, Shepard please."

"Only when I'm finished, Liara."

"Shepard, you're sick you need help." Liara began to cry.

Shepard began to laugh. He applied pressure to the hold, causing even more pain to Liara.

"STOP!" Liara screamed. She knocked Shepard off in an impressive display of biotic power. She turned to face him. Shepard tried to get up, and Liara answered with a biotic throw. The throw knocked Shepard onto the jagged edges of one of the glasses Shepard threw earlier. He raised his head, big gashes in his face displaying a faint glow of the synthetics underneath.

Again, Shepard tried to get up but Liara threw him down again. Tears began to flow uncontrollably. "I... I love you Shepard, and this is what you do to me." Again she threw him, his body making a thud with the wall. Each time Shepard got up a little slower. "Or maybe it's the synthetics that are making you do this." Liara sighed. "Maybe it'd be best to kill you right now and stop all of us from suffering." She shook her head at the thought.

"Why do you not care for me anymore?"

THUD

"Why the violence now?"

THUD

"WHY DID YOU CHEAT ON ME?" Liara felt her emotions get the best of her. "WHY?" In her rage her began to shoot out biotic throws one after the other. Each one hit Shepard, and this time, he did not try to get up. Liara shook her head.

"I loved you Shepard, but now..." Her biotics flared up once more. Her arm raised to deliver the finishing blow. "I don't think that you can go back to the way you were before."

Her hand began to move forward to unleash the shot, but a green hand knocked her arm, causing the shot to miss its target. Liara turned to see Shiala.

"You don't know how much he cares about you Liara." She said.

Liara didn't hear a thing. "YOU." She stated, fuming. Her biotics flared up threateningly.

"You're in his thoughts constantly Liara." Shiala stated, trying to defuse the situation. Liara didn't answer so she continued to explain. "I melded with him and-"

Liara threw Shiala over a table. "I know. And don't you dare say anything about that." She glared at her. "Shepard is MINE." Liara began to approach Shiala, a murderous look in her eyes. Her biotics flared up. "You took him from me."

Shiala backed up. "It's not like that, he told me that you had broken up!" She looked away. "I was stupid... I believed him."

"YOU TOLD HER WHAT?" She swung around and shot another biotic throw at Shepard. Instead the throw impacted with the wall. Shepard was gone. Liara sprinted out the bar and looked around. Shepard was nowhere to be seen. _Bastard slipped away._

Liara went back into the bar and went back to Shiala. Shiala still sat on the ground where Liara had left her. Liara took a deep breath and pulled out her pistol. She breathed heavily from the exertion. "I wasn't going to use this on Shepard, but I will not hesitate to use it on you. Shepard is gone, and I blame you. You slept and melded with my bond mate. Now tell me everything before all this stress makes me snap."

Shiala complied. "When I mel-" She looked up at the gun and the angry lover wielding it. "-erm, shared consciousness with Shepard, at first we were together alone. But then strange things began appearing. There was another Shepard there, yelling at the real Shepard about what has he done. And then there were you, pleading him to get help, and that you believed that the real him was in there somewhere." Shiala looked to see that the gun was at Liara's hip again. "I was so confused. He ran from it all in desperation and I cut it off there."

"Oh Shepard." Liara's voice had suddenly lost every threatening tone. Something gentle and very fragile surfaced. "The real Shepard is still there. And now he's lost control." She sat down, pulled her knees to her chest and began to cry. Shiala awkwardly hugged Liara.

"There definitely is the real Shepard trapped in there somewhere." She agreed.

Liara looked up. "And we are going to rescue him."

Liara helped Shiala up and she helped her to the shuttle to get to the Normandy.

* * *

Shepard hadn't been to too many places on Earth. And most of the places that he had been to were pummeled to smithereens by the Reapers. Vancouver was not an option; Liara had taught him that. His next best destination would be London. There were the large refugee camps there still, and Shepard needed a big place to get lost in. He had managed to escape the bar, but painfully so. It had felt like every bone in his body was broken, which was probably an understatement. He had used a secret canister of medigel that he had. He anticipated starting a fight in the bar and wanted to be prepared, but unfortunately the fight had come to him, and not on his own terms. Now it was around four months later, and Shepard was starting to feel fully recovered.

To get to London and to avoid being followed, Shepard took an incredibly long way by foot. First he went down south and worked his way up in a zigzag. The ferry he took actually was going to Naples, and then he worked his way up and was taking another ferry to London. In that time, no woman was safe, Shepard took who he pleased. Any asari he took experienced the same thing as Shiala did, except their reactions were getting worse with each fling. Some went willingly with him, others did not. Shepard enjoyed the power, the power of being in command. He just couldn't stop.

The ferry rocked as it pulled into dock. _Now it's time to disappear._ Shepard pulled up the collar on the trench coat that he wore to hide his glowing scars and joined the flood of people getting off the boat. London seemed better than he remembered it. Looking around he could see Alliance ships and workers milling about, some working on reconstruction, and others tasked with helping refugees. _So they took my idea and I'm not even in charge anymore… bastards._ The Alliance seemed very organized. _I wonder who took my place._

* * *

"I like that idea Dr. T'soni. The reconstruction fleets will respond accordingly." Admiral Hackett thanked her. "I just want to mention one more thing before I leave."

"And what is that?" Liara answered.

"I know it's been a while, but the prototype engines on the Normandy are all complete."

Liara looked away. "Oh… That." She muttered.

"I know you are still looking for Shepard but the engines are all done. I can relieve you of command of Earth's reconstruction whenever you like so you can leave."

Liara nodded slightly. "Ok I see, thank you Admiral."

"Hackett out." Hackett disappeared from the comm station. Liara sighed and made her way down the steps into her war room turned Shadow Broker lair. She checked her feeds. The hourly reports of her agents all returned the same thing: Shepard is nowhere to be found. She then turned off the displays and went to eat, something she normally forgot to do.

* * *

Shepard shuffled along with the refuge crowds to the camps. Last time when he had been to the camps they were smaller. Back then the only refugees at the time were the soldiers that had just fought in London. Now humans from all over are trying to get a safe place to sleep. In addition, space crews from the SWORD fleet also needed some time on world. Those that were on the citadel also made their ways to London. What resulted was a controlled chaos.

In the long while that Shepard had walking before he got to London, he had devised a plan to get out of trouble. And there was someone that he needed to find in the chaos. Someone else who craved power just like he did.

* * *

Liara looked around the table as she ate. Shiala ate to herself quietly. She had taken up a spot on the Normandy to sleep, and was a pleasure to have on board. Her pregnancy was going well, Chakwas told her that the time was coming when she would give birth. Secretly Liara was immensely jealous, as she should be having the baby, not Shiala. Garrus and Tali had just left the table to go back to their room. Ashley munched away quietly as well. All three sat in an awkward silence._ Shepard would have us all talking if he were here._ Dr. Chakwas also was working on a salad. She was there because she did not trust Liara to eat alone. _Eating alone means digesting Shadow Broker feeds, not digesting._ Chakwas' voice popped up in Liara's head.

Chakwas was looking at her.

"Dear, it seems you got lost in thought again. Take another bite."

Liara smiled. _At least she cares._ She then took another bite.

"I wanted to talk to you about Shepard, Liara."

At the sound of her lost lover's name, Liara stopped chewing. "Why?"

"I am concerned, if you find him, what will you do to cure him? Have you thought about that at all?"

Liara stood up defensively. "I will find him. I'm the Shadow Broker. It's not a question of if, but when."

"Take another bite."

"Yes doctor." Liara sat back down and took another bite.

"You should do some research and see what you can do. I'll get in contact with Dr. Morrow again. Let's see what he thinks."

Liara nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

She stood up, picking up her food as well. "I'm going to go to the war room to do some research, I'll finish this there I promise."

Chakwas laughed. "No you won't. Sit down and finish eating."

_Yes mother._

* * *

"The queen of Omega, now queen of the Refugee camp."

"You know how I like to live, Shepard."

Aria, former queen of omega, head of the united mercenary groups, was laid out on a makeshift throne of couches. The couches were survivors of the Reaper bombardments, most likely taken from several different homes. Aria looked at him with indifference.

"Why are you here?"

"I need your help."

Aria laughed. "Everyone needs my help. What makes you think I'll listen?"

"Because I'm god damn Commander Shepard, that's why."

Aria could not hide her surprise at that comment.

"And here I thought Shepard was a goody two shoes kind of guy."

"Things have changed."

She folded her arms. "Yes they have." She thought for a moment. "I will help you, but then you have to help me."

"Fine."

"So what is it?"

"I need to disappear."

"One does not simply disappear, Commander Shepard. One has to disappear from someone's radar. Who is it?"

"The Shadow Broker."

Aria stopped and looked up at Shepard. "Things go south with you and Dr. T'soni?"

"Watch your mouth. Can you do it?"

She laughed. "Oh I can do it alright. But it will take me a while to get your fake ID set in place. Should be easier with the state things are in right now." Shepard turned to leave. "I'm not finished." Shepard faced her again. "And as payment for my help, you will be my bitch. Crystal clear?"

"Crystal." He cracked his knuckles. "Should be quite fun actually."

She laughed for a moment before showing indifference again. And that was his cue to leave.

* * *

Shepard looked at himself in the mirror. The two more months that he was around waiting for the IDs and fake back story to be cemented did not do anything to heal the scars. He turned from the mirror. He lived in a small apartment that was slightly damaged from the attacks; it was on the outskirts of the city. He shared the apartment with three others, two turians and a batarian. The turians knew each other, and would not stop mentioning how Shepard looked like Commander Shepard. _If only they knew._ The batarian just kept to himself. Shepard exited the apartment and made his way down the stairs to the bottom. He was going to head to Aria's to check up on things.

He left the building and was greeted to a company of Alliance soldiers. He breathed a sigh of relief as he noticed that the soldiers were not intent on any targets, just milling about. Shepard stopped and watched as some soldiers entered another building and asked for IDs. _Must be taking a census to see who is here._ Shepard avoided the soldiers and ducked into another building. As he ran into the entryway, he ran right into another soldier walking out. Both fell down.

"Sorry." Shepard said as he brought himself up, trying to avoid eye contact. He put his collar back up over his scars.

The soldier didn't answer for a second. "SHEPARD!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's notes**: It is with great excitement that I present to you chapter 6. More action this time and big happenings await you in this chapter!

Just want to say one thing to you all before you start reading. Last weekend I finalized the plotline for the rest of the story, and man is it going to be awesome! Can't wait to write it for you guys! :D

I really hope that you guys are enjoying this story so far, I know that I am having a ton of fun writing it!

Now time to address some reviews: OptimumCamski said:

_As someone who has never been able to go full renegade in any of my 10 playthroughs (the "I'm such a terrible person" instinct kicks in about halfway through each time), it is physically discomforting to watch/read this transformation of Shepard. The high quality of the writing only adds to that discomfort (if that makes sense)_

_ Mad props for being ballsy enough to explore the transition, and congrats on writing it so well that Shepard's actions make me slightly sick to my stomach. That's what good writing about terrible people ought to do._

First of all, thanks! I have never really been able to go fully renegade as well, and I'll be honest, sometimes I am disgusted with what I write... but I keep it anyway. As you can see in this chapter, Shepard does some pretty bad stuff. xD lol But thanks a lot again!

anon said:

_I love this story now..._

All I have to say is: Good you better. O.o haha just kidding, glad you like it!

Finally, I realize that I forgot to answer reviews in the previous chapter. Sorry but I've just been so busy writing! Please forgive me! lol

Bioware owns everything except the story.

**And now, Chapter 6!**

* * *

Shepard looked on in horror as he realized who he had bumped into. Former squad mate and Spectre Ashley Williams was getting up right in front of him.

"Shepard? Shepard is that you?" She asked, not believing her eyes.

Shepard avoided her gaze and laughed. _Deny! Just deny you can get out of this just like you did with the turian roommates._ He thought. "I get that a lot." He bs'ed. He tried to abort the conversation and get away; it didn't matter where just as long as he got away. But Ashley wouldn't let him go that easily. She grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Whoa there buddy. Then let me see some ID so we can get you punched into the census."

Shepard fumbled around in his pockets to buy time. He had his own identification, however he couldn't use that. Ashley had forced his hand.

"I don't have any ID on me." He replied, trying to sound innocent.

"Then take me to where your ID is so we can sort this all out and you won't have to worry about us again." She said with a smirk.

Shepard nodded and began walking back to his apartment. _Trying to catch me in my bluff eh Ashley?_ He would have to lose her, and fast. He quickly thought up of a plan. His apartment was two floors below the roof, if he could climb up and jump across to another nearby rooftop he could escape easily.

They got to his apartment floor, took a step out of the elevator and Shepard showed the way to his apartment. At the door he stopped.

"Now I have this roommate that doesn't like unexpected visitors, if you could wait just a second I want to tell him that we have someone here."

Ashley nodded and let Shepard go into his apartment alone. He quickly ran to the batarian.

"Datarn! I am in deep trouble; I need you to stall this person outside while I climb to the roof."

The batarian nodded. "Boy is Aria going to be mad." He made his way to the door.

One of the windows in the apartment was broken from the battle. Shepard quickly slipped through the hole onto the window sill and looked up. Just a floor of climbing was between him and the roof. He shuffled back as far out as he could on the window sill and jumped. His hand made contact with the windowsill of the next floor and pulled himself up. He looked into the top floor apartment seeing a female human was combing her hair. As he shuffled around to jump up to the roof, she looked over and screamed when she saw Shepard.

"I'm sorry, don't mind me!" He yelled to her as he continued climbing. _Shit Ash definitely heard that._

Meanwhile downstairs Ashley heard the scream. She interrupted the batarian's rant about general relativity. "What's going on there? Where is your roommate?"

"He's inside."

Ashley pushed her way into the apartment. The apartment itself was just a single room, and there was no Shepard to be found.

"Boy did I call your bluff." She muttered as she proceeded to run out the room, first taking a quick stop to knock out the batarian who was attempting to block her way. She sprinted up the stairs. _Probably going for the roof... But why?_ She opened the door just in time to see Shepard sprint and jump off the ledge. Ashley gasped and ran to the ledge. Shepard landed with a roll onto the next rooftop and ran into the stairwell. _You're not losing me that easily._ She sprinted down the stairs of her building and ran in the direction of the building that Shepard landed on. She spotted him down the street and kept up the sprint to catch up to him.

She began to see that Shepard didn't know where he was going and began to catch up to him. He had stopped, with his head turning this way and that as he debated which way to go. She was getting closer when Shepard decided what way to go. As he ran, Ashley glimpsed a predator pistol concealed in his left hand. _What is he doing?_ The nearby street was populated with bystanders. He aimed the pistol and shot a nearby container. The container itself had biohazard warnings all over it, and a dark colored gas hissed out the hole that the bullet punctured. _That can't be good._ She looked nearby at all the people around there. _That can't be good at all._ She turned her focus to stopping the problem, letting Shepard get away. _He had to play the innocent bystander card... bastard._ She desperately resorted to plugging the hole and getting a biohazard team on the scene to solve the problem. By that time, Shepard was long gone.

* * *

Ashley walked into the Normandy mess hall agitated and defeated.

"What's the matter Ash? Collecting IDs tire you out?" Garrus teased at the dinner table.

_Ugh._ "Damn Shepard." She grunted.

Garrus laughed. "Yes Shepard is the reason we are still here, but don't blame everything on him."

Ashley grunted and turned. "No, Shepard was the problem."

"You saw Shepard?" The flang in Garrus' voice sounded excited.

"Yeah Shepard." Ashley opened the refrigerator and poured herself a drink. "I ran into him, tried to pretend he was someone else, gave me a chase, and ended up playing the innocent bystander in danger card to evade me." She took a drink and shook her head. "You know what, where's the alcohol?"

"You know the cabinet Sis." Vega laughed. Ash didn't see him when she had walked in. She looked over to the table to see if anyone else was at the table. What she saw were Vega and Garrus sitting at the table with a poker set up. _Goodness, he's teaching Garrus poker._

"Sis? You've got to be kidding me." She gave him a look that matched her comment. Vega laughed again in response.

"Did someone mention Shepard?"

Liara had appeared out of nowhere. The asari had large bags under her eyes, a result of spending countless hours searching for Shepard. By the look of the rest of her face, Ashley could tell that the search wasn't going well. _Now there's someone who could use a drink more than I do._

"I ran into Shepard in London but he gave me the slip."

Liara's face exploded in excitement. She edged closer to Ashley, desperate to hear more. "You saw Shepard? In London? Is he ok? What did he say?" With each question Liara's face edged closer and closer. The desperation to hear about her lover was immense.

"Whoa hold your horses." Ashley responded, desperate herself to fix the breach in her personal bubble. "When I asked if he was Shepard, he tried to pass himself off as someone else who looked like him."

"Then what?"

"He tried to give me the slip by roof jumping. But I followed him. I almost had him but then he shot some biohazard tank and I was forced to stop it or some people would be put in danger." She sighed. Liara looked away depressed.

"Still up to his renegade antics I see."

"I could see the scars on his face hadn't healed at all."

Liara sighed and but looked optimistic. A newly kindled fire alit in her eyes. "We can still save him. I'll get my agents to search all of London for him." She ran out of the room and into the elevator to her lair. Ashley sighed as well. She turned to the two playing poker.

"Mind if I join?"

"Of course you can, and you can pay me my winnings up front right now." Vega teased.

* * *

Liara appeared back into the kitchen an hour later. She was curiously dressed in armor.

"I'm going to London to do some searching for myself. Would any of you like to come with me?"

Garrus was losing pretty badly at poker. He was the first to volunteer. Ashley had also joined and was losing badly as well. She was the second to volunteer. Both left the table quickly. Vega patted his sizeable stack of credits and laughed.

"Pleasure doing business with you two!"

Both Ashley and Garrus got into their armors and headed out to the shuttle bay with Liara. There they grabbed their choices of weapons and got into the nearest shuttle.

"Liara, you wouldn't go down there unless you knew where to look. What did you find?" Garrus asked.

"Aria T'loak is in London. I'd give anything to say that this renegade Shepard would be attracted to her. Power hungry personalities are attracted to each other; I've found that out in my line of work. She's our best bet." She hopped into the pilot seat and pulled the shuttle away.

Garrus leaned over to Ash. "I bet he's attracted to her in more ways than one."

Ashley smirked and shook her head in disapproval. Garrus chuckled at the reaction.

Sometime later the shuttle landed with a thud and all three made their way off the shuttle. Garrus and Ash followed Liara as they navigated through the city of tents and shelters of the refugee camp. In the center of the city was a damaged building. Inside that building Aria resided as a queen.

The made their way to the building and Liara shoved her way past the guards into Aria's chamber. There were several guns aimed at the three as they entered.

"What are you doing here?" Aria demanded.

"Where's my Shepard?" Liara demanded back.

Aria smiled. She signaled to her guards to put their weapons away and beckoned Liara to take a seat. Liara did not take the invitation. "I might know where he is. But what's it to you?"

Liara tried desperately to control her rage. After a moment she gained control and was able to speak. "He is my bond mate." She took a deep breath. "I know that you've had dealings with him."

"I've had lots of dealings with him. On the citadel, and on omega."

"How about right here?"

Aria laughed. "He's not here."

Liara eyed her suspiciously. Without warning, she knocked one of the couches in her chamber over with a biotic push. "WHERE IS HE?" She cried. Again, the guards raised their weapons.

Aria again motioned to her guards to put their weapons away. She leaned forward to word was uttered with defiance into Liara's face. "I. Don't. know." She motioned to one of the guards. "And now if you'll excuse me, my guard will show you out. I've got business to attend to."

The guard led Liara Garrus and Ashley out at gunpoint.

"She was hiding something, I could feel it." Garrus uttered once they were outside and the guard had left.

"I felt it too." Liara agreed. "We should stake out the building for any signs of Shepard."

"Sounds like a plan." Ashley agreed.

"Let's find a spot." Garrus began to walk off.

The three of them found a suitable place to watch Aria's building. Ashley took up the first watch. In the meantime Liara pulled out a vial of clear liquid. She poured the liquid into a dart, capping it off once she was finished. She handed the dart and an interesting crossbow contraption to Garrus.

"You're our best long range shot Garrus. If we see Shepard I need you to hit him with this sedative. It's a barbiturate, its fast acting, he'll go down for sure. But I don't know how long it will keep him under with his upped metabolism. So we have to sneak the body out of here fast and bring it to the Normandy."

"Wow you came prepared." Ash marveled.

"I couldn't risk losing a chance to get him. This might be the only chance we get."

Then they sat quietly and watched the building for signs of Shepard.

* * *

It was getting to be nightfall and Shepard was heading to Aria's rather quickly. He had stayed the whole day hiding in the tent city, and now he needed to tell Aria of the day's happenings. Things might have been seriously jeopardized with all that has happened.

He made his way up the path to the building when he felt something hit his leg. He brought his hand down to the spot and his fingers touched an object. Looking down he saw what he had felt; a dart, a thin long cylinder had just injected a mysterious clear liquid into his body. He felt dizzy and he tore the dart out of his leg. He tried to step forward but his leg did not respond. He stumbled down to his knee. _Things are more than jeopardized._ Then everything went black.

* * *

Liara watched as Shepard's body slumped to the ground, all the while struggling to fight it. It was a sad sight, but Liara had to give an incredibly high dosage to take down Commander Shepard. Even with the high dosage she gave, she was unsure how long it would keep him under.

It troubled her that her assumption of a connection with Aria was correct. _What could they have been planning?_ She thought.

"Liara, let's go!" Ashley tugged at her arm and brought her back to reality. They headed over to the now motionless body. Ashley slung him over her shoulder. Liara stood and played with his unresponsive hand for a moment. _Don't worry, I've got you now. You're safe._

"Let's get out of here." She said after playing with the hand a little bit.

Shepard was heavy, so it was slow moving for Ash. No sooner had they started walking back to the shuttle than trouble started.

"They have Shepard!"

Spots of ground shot up all around the trio from sniper fire. All three took cover. They could hear foot soldiers running up to engage them. The trio began to move from cover to cover as they fled the gunfire and headed towards the shuttle. Garrus took out his sniper rifle, while Liara took out her submachine gun. They went to work covering Ashley who had the duty of carrying the body.

"We can't let them get Shepard!"

With every shot Garrus took out a merc, but then another one took his place. They had made slow progress to the shuttle, having to have to dart in between rubble and shelters to provide covering fire for Ash. Liara fired a singularity into the group to give them a moment's reprieve.

Liara was starting to get nervous. "I don't know how long the sedative will hold Shepard. We need to get away now!" She yelled to her comrades. She checked her omni tool. "It's been 30 minutes already!"

"So I got a ticking time bomb slung over my shoulder that we don't know when it will go off... great." Ashley replied.

They got to the shuttle and Ashley threw the body in. Rockets began to fire, one landing right outside the shuttle. Liara and Garrus had to dive out of the way, while Ashley took cover inside the shuttle. The gunfire got so intense that they were unable to make their way back to the shuttle just yet. Liara looked over to see how Ash was doing. To her horror, she saw that someone else was waking up.

"Ash! Look out, he's waking up!"

Ashley looked over to the body that was now slowly getting up. "Where am I?" He muttered/

"Shit shit shit shit shit! That wasn't long at all!" Ashley stood over him, not knowing what to do. Angrily he stood up, grabbing her and throwing her into Garrus who was just running up to the shuttle. He then ran out of the shuttle and back onto Earth.

Garrus and Ash scrambled to their feet. They looked desperately at Liara who was running up. Each pair of eyes conveyed the same message: retreat.

And retreat they did.

* * *

Shepard waltzed into Aria's chamber. All the guards were away patching up the wounded, or being those very wounded. Aria looked furious.

"Next time you compromise yourself. Give me some warning."

"No, we're done, the deal's off." Shepard answered. "You almost lost me. I'll take my chances by myself, thank you very much."

"You can't just go back on our deal. Not when I've done so much." Aria replied, furious. "You can't do shit without me."

"I can do this."

Shepard pulled out a pistol and shot Aria in the chest. She looked up at him in surprise, but regained herself. She lunged at Shepard, but the wound was already starting to affect her; her body was sluggish, and her mind could not focus. _Polonium rounds._ She thought.

Shepard had more than enough time to counter the lunge. He grabbed her and flung her down onto the floor. Aria felt her body make contact with the ground, and immediately felt a force coming down upon her. Shepard had straddled her body on the floor and began to pretend like he was riding a horse. He began to laugh, and Aria saw that Shepard's face displayed a twisted sense of fun and malice. _He's enjoying this._ It was almost like this is all a joke to him. He slapped her on the face and threw her back onto the couch. There he beat her on the couch, not caring for the spilled blood.

At this point, Aria was gasping for air due to her wound. Shepard noticed and took out his omni tool, and applied some medigel. Both of them knew it; Shepard had won, and no amount of struggling will change that.

"Don't worry I won't let you die." He whispered into her ear. "I have uses for you yet." His hand reached down her shirt. "Many uses."

Aria began to shake in fear. No one had ever stood her up or done anything like this. Aria was the one that was supposed to do that to Shepard should he become rebellious. Nothing like this. She was queen and yet she was just defeated in her own home. She let him do whatever he wanted to her. She was too scared to move; her mind to numb to act.

"You're a madman." She finally managed to blurt out before Shepard had gotten started with her.

Shepard laughed. "You're just jealous that I did it first." He brought his finger to his chest. "I'm in control now."

He stopped what he was doing and began to pace the room. "I realized as I walked back from that failed attempt to capture me that why am I running? Running was never my forte." He stopped walking and stood in front of the fallen queen. "Killing is my forte." Aria just looked up at him with wide eyes as Shepard began to laugh again. "And now that I am in control, we are going to have a change in priorities."

Aria tried to shift away from Shepard on the couch. But Shepard noticed.

"Nuh uh uh. You're staying with me."

Aria kept moving. "Get away from me!"

Shepard grabbed her and threw her back to her initial spot. "I wasn't finished talking." He grabbed her head and brought his lips real close so she can hear every last word. "I'm going to bring myself to the top, and make everyone else that opposes me the ones that have to run." He laughed. "And I'm going to start by taking out the council, something that you pathetic weakling could never do. Then as de facto ruler, I will chase out or kill everyone else that doesn't like me." He looked down at her and smiled. "There will be one rule: Don't fuck with Shepard." He smiled as he let the irony of those words sink in.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's notes: **Hey everyone, not that much action in this chapter, but I needed a segway into the big stuff. We are coming up on the ending soonish so keep it up with the awesome reviews and faves and story alerts... all in all you guys are awesome! Keep up the good work. I am planning that before the final chapter there will be a massive overhaul of every chapter. Just want to make the story consistent and have some quality control. But don't worry, when it comes up to the last chapter, I'll let you all know. :D

Chris writes: _Yah, the anon that said "I love this story" was me; I forgot my login info, lol. Maybe when I find it I'll review it proper! Great writing, keep it coming!_

Thanks! I wish you the best of luck finding that login info! xD lol

EDIT: FIRST TYPO! I had called Kenneth Donnelly Keith ONCE by accident... It's true I was having trouble remembering his name but I thought I fixed all the instances after I double checked... BAH HUMBUG! Thanks to chrizzle88 for finding it!

Anyway, without further ado, I present to you chapter 7! I did this one late at night because I wanted to get it out as soon as possible. If there are any bad typoes or grammar mistakes, or even if the writing is total crap. DO NOT hesitate to tell me. Enjoy!

* * *

"Listen, I took out so much of your organization all on my own, Darner. If you don't want to follow me, then I'll do it again with what's left."

Shepard delivered his ultimatum to the shaking blue suns leader. Incidentally he also had a gun aimed at point blank at his head. But that's only a small detail. Their discussion about the role the Blue Suns would play in Shepard's plan had gotten a little heated. They didn't want to be involved, and Shepard was going to change that.

"Rule one: Don't fuck with Shepard, but especially don't pull a gun on him in discussions."

Shepard added as he pulled the leader up. Just as quickly as he had helped him up, Shepard shot him in the head. The now headless body sunk to the floor again. Shepard went back to sit down on the couch. He looked at a guard.

"Tell the Blue Suns that if they don't want to end up like their leader, they will join up with me."

The guard nodded and left to deliver the message. Shepard brought his left hand to rest on Aria's head and began to stroke her crest. Shepard had made Aria into his own personal play toy. He gave her an outfit to wear like the dancers at her own club, Afterlife, but it was cut into two pieces, exposing her mid-section. It was much skimpier than the standard. Shepard didn't need to restrain her, the fire that had burned in her before was put out and would never be relit again. Where would she go anyway?

"That is how you take care of allies Aria, you make them fear leaving you." He whispered to her. "But you know that." He laughed as he beckoned the Blood pack leader in.

A krogan in crimson red armor barged into the room, and upon seeing Shepard he charged up until he was just a foot from Shepard. The guards all had their guns pointed on him, and Shepard did nothing to make them do anything otherwise. Instead he began to speak to the krogan.

"You know why the Blood Pack is so small now?"

The krogan did not answer; instead he huffed at the fact that Shepard brought up.

"It's because the others were in my way." He pointed a finger at the krogan. "I know you're smart enough not to get in my way."

The krogan laughed. "You can kill me, but you can't kill the Blood Pack."

Now it was Shepard's time to laugh. "That's the plan." He pulled out his pistol and shot.

The bullet fizzed as it made contact with the krogan's shield. The krogan hit his chest in triumph.

"HA! It will take more than that to kill me, human, I know that you would rather kill me and take control than making a deal with me! How do you think that I got in control of Blood Pack? I wrestled it from the cold, dead hands of the vorcha before me!"

Shepard was unfazed, and instead smirked. "I'm more than human, krogan." In the blink of an eye, Shepard had climbed onto the Krogan's back. His omniblade glistened as he into the krogan's hump, and then led the omniblade to rest in the top of his head. The body sunk down, and Shepard rode it until it hit the floor. Shepard dismounted and walked back, casually finding a seat on the couch again, but this time covered in blood. Again Shepard's hand found Aria's crest and he began to stroke it. He felt a shiver go down Aria's spine, and just as quickly as he had mounted the Krogan, he slapped her on the face.

"You want to end up like him?" He yelled at her, pointing to the carcass on the floor.

"... No." She uttered. He laughed at her submission. He motioned to a guard.

"Same deal as before. And I have the eclipse leader coming soon so bring me my lunch."

The guard left to do his bidding. _It's good to be king._ Shepard thought as he sat back on the couch.

* * *

Tali was having a hard time with everything. First, Liara Garrus and Ashley had gone to do something about Shepard... and without her. The excursion had gone badly, that's all she knew, because neither of the three were very forthcoming with information. Garrus even told her it was none of her business, bringing both into a fight. Tali felt that relationships and moods were strained to say the least all over the ship. _We are beginning to come apart like what happened after Shepard had died from the Collectors._ She thought. _Maybe I should take Garrus' advice._ She headed into the war room, what she referred to as the Shadow lair, a joke she kept to herself about the newly refurbished war room. Tali was going to attempt something crazy: convince the Shadow Broker to tell her what happened on that excursion. Since Garrus was mad at her and Ashley was terribly drunk with James at present, Liara was her only source.

The lair itself was dimly lit, with the light of many consoles being the only source of light. The Broker herself stood working at the largest source of light, the main console. The information drone known as Glyph gracefully floated over to Tali.

"Greetings Tali'zorah vas Normandy." It chirped. "The Shadow Broker is currently busy at the moment. Please try again later."

"Liara, can I talk with you?" Tali suggested out loud to the Shadow Broker, past the drone. "You've been at work ever since you came back."

"I'm fine Tali, if that's what you are getting at." Liara assured her from the console. "I don't need anything right now, just need to finish working."

Tali sighed. "Maybe I am the one that needs something right now Liara."

Liara went silent for a moment. "Is it about your fight with Garrus?" Liara still did not look up from the console. Tali began to walk down the stairs past the drone, eventually coming to a stop next to Liara.

"Yes, I want to know why he's so angry about the mission you all went on."

Liara sighed. "No I don't want to talk about it."

"I just want to know why Garrus is so upset." Tali pouted.

"It was a total failure. That's all you need to know."

"But something more must have happened. I've never seen Garrus like that, except when Shepard was helping him with Sidonis." She edged a little closer to Liara. "What happened?"

Liara tore her eyes off the screen and faced Tali. She looked annoyed, and Tali couldn't tell if it was at her, or because of the story.

"We had Shepard in our hands. We had hit him with a sedative long range, fought past Aria's mercs, and were almost on the shuttle when Shepard woke up." She paused, shaking her head as she spoke. "I had given him too little of a dosage. It was my fault." She looked back at Tali. "Then he got away and we were forced to leave." Tali watched as a single tear made its way down Liara's face.

Liara slammed the console with both hands. Tali jumped at the sudden outburst.

"We were so close." She whispered. "We could have had him." Her eyes shut and more tears began to flow. Tali put an arm on Liara but it was shrugged off.

"Don't worry, there will be another chance." Tali consoled. "Next time you'll get the dosage right."

"Tali I don't think you realize." Her anguish shown clearly in her voice. "That might have been our last chance at getting Shepard back."

Tali shook her head. "No, there is al-"

"NO!" Liara fought to regain her composure. "Aria probably has him under lock and key, no matter how badly their plans have been compromised; Shepard is too good of an asset to give up." Liara interrupted. "It's over. The only hope is waiting until Shepard and Aria do whatever they have been planning and we get lucky."

Tali stood strong. "There is always another way. We just got to keep trying."

Liara shook her head. "You were always so naive Tali, it's over. We failed. Now it's time to wait for what Shepard and Aria have planned... and even then we don't know if we could get them."

Tali stepped back defensively. "Well my only worry is not about Shepard, but about all of us. We haven't had any fun together, all that is going on is this business with Shepard and it's tearing us apart. You act like this is all your own trouble to bear. We all care about Shepard, why don't you let us help." With that, Tali turned and left the room in a hurry. She didn't want any sympathy or further discussion. She had said her part, and now she needed some other place to go. Liara looked down at her console. She couldn't focus anymore, the cry of her comrade echoing in her head. _This whole thing IS tearing us apart._ She thought rather hazily. _I should apologize. _She quickly put her console in sleep mode and walked off. She stumbled on the stairs in a tired haze. _But maybe after a short nap._

* * *

Shepard took another bite out of his sandwich. As he chewed on his couch he triumphantly looked down at the cowering Salarian in front of him. He was speaking some nonsense about knowing that he killed the other leaders for control and that he will do it to him too. _Why are salarians always right?_ Shepard thought to himself. Shepard swallowed his bite, took out his pistol and began inspecting it.

"Sayn, remember how you got into power? I was the one that convinced you to grow a pair and take control of eclipse, remember?"

The salarian nodded furiously.

"You're a smart boy, and I don't like to kill smart people when I can use them. What are you specialties?"

"Smuggling, security, espionage, infiltration, sabotage. You name it." He desperately rattled off. He weakly gave a smile in an attempt to appeal to Shepard.

"Infiltration and sabotage. I like those. Relinquish command of Eclipse, and I can then employ your services for myself. That is my deal." He took another bite of his sandwich.

Sayn gave a surprised expression on his face.

"You mean I'm not going to die?" His face displayed an incredibly happy grin. "Of course I'll do that!" Sayn dropped to his knees and bowed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He exclaimed. "I won't let you down! I'll start right away!"

Shepard laughed. "Good." He motioned to one of the guards and they wheeled in a large display unit, similar to the one in the war room on the Normandy. Shepard got up and began working the console.

"The council currently is on the Destiny Ascension as it is being repaired from the damage it suffered from the Reapers. We need something to force them to get down into the ambassadorial embassy down in Vancouver. Then we need to find a way to get inside and take out the council before anyone else knows what is happening. I will then rise up in the power vacuum and take control. You've got 3 hours; I want at least a rough plan or I'm looking for a new salarian."

Sayn brought a hand up to his chin in thought. "I can do that."

"Good." Shepard motioned to a guard. "Make sure he has a room and whatever he needs for planning." He flicked his hand in an upward motion to signal that was all he wanted. "And nice sandwich by the way."

* * *

Liara had only slept a few hours but the rest had done her good. Before Tali had come in, she had sent agents out to infiltrate Aria's ranks. Now she would be able to see what their initial efforts have uncovered. But first, Liara decided on a little side trip before she made her way into the war room. She punched the button for the engineering deck. The elevator hummed downwards the extra few floors and the doors opened to reveal the engineering deck.

Liara had gone to that floor several times to talk to Javik, but she never took the time to explore this section of the ship like Shepard had. She was still repulsed of the room that the ANN reporter had used even though she had left. In fact she never took the time to check out the actual engineering rooms even though she had visited the floor. She felt awkward and nervous like when she first was on the Normandy as she stood outside the engineering room doors. _Well here it goes._ The doors parted ways, revealing a flight of stairs went down into the bowels of the ship and another set of doors. _Well that was anti-climactic._ Liara decided to take the doors; taking a mental note of the stairs should Tali not be there. She slipped inside and was greeted warmly by both Donnellys. Or rather one Donnelly and one soon-to-be Donnelly. They began rattling off all the specs of the engine to Liara, who was lost within seconds. Soon they began a bantering about certain specs. She waited for a moment of reprieve in their banter before speaking up.

"Do you know where Tali is?" Liara asked when she found one.

"She went down below to clean some of the exhaust filters." Kenneth answered.

"If you ask me she sounded a little depressed. She NEVER does exhaust filter cleaning duty, says it's too quiet and lonely." Gabriella added.

Liara nodded. _I think she will welcome a distraction from her work... Even if it is me. _"Thanks, I was looking for her."

Liara turned and hurried out, as the couple began bickering if Tali was upset or not. Kenneth promptly began displaying a terrible understanding of women even before Liara left. She hurried down the stairs. Once at the bottom, Liara saw her target; Tali was hunched over a small exhaust filter placed on a small work table in the bottom decks. She was cursing the filters for not cooperating. _She's definitely upset._

"Tali?" Liara asked, testing the waters.

Tali turned and saw it was Liara. "Oh, it's you." She crossed her arms and turned away. "Here to yell at me some more... on my own turf even? Why can't you just let me be?"

Liara shook her head. "Tali, I came to say I'm sorry… I'm sorry for what I did." She attempted a gesture of goodwill, but ended up just bringing her hands down onto her legs. "I was tired, and I really wasn't thinking about what I said. I'm sorry."

Tali's arms uncrossed and she turned back to face her. She sighed. "I forgive you Liara. We quarians learn not to hold grudges on other crewmates very early on. You've also been a good friend to me."

Liara's expression eased. "Thank you Tali." She hesitated. "I was also wondering... if you would care to work with me up in the war room? I could use the help... and the company."

Tali took a step closer. "You mean in the Shadow lair? I would love to."

Liara laughed. "The… what lair?"

"For someone as mysterious as the Shadow Broker, there needs to be a place that the Shadow Broker works that sounds just as mysterious." Tali answered. "It's just a little thing I made up."

"Well I like it. To the Shadow Lair we go!" Liara put her arm around Tali and lead her up the stairs to the elevator. "I'll fill you in on all the details in the elevator."

* * *

Sayn jumped when he realized that Shepard had entered his small planning room. He had been absorbed in his plans and didn't notice the passage of time.

"Your time is up, what do you have?"

He stepped back proudly from his plans. "Well I have more than a rough draft... I even have a small presentation made for you."

Shepard smiled. _It was a good idea keeping him alive._ "Good. Show me."

The salarian hit a few buttons at the console and the Destiny Ascension appeared on the display.

"The Destiny Ascension is currently being repaired with the council on board." He hit a button and a small section of the ship began to flash red. "This is the life support. It is located next to and connected to one of the power cells of the engines. If the engine were to send a large current to the power cell by a stupid wiring mistake of one of the engineers, it could short out the power cell, which would also knock out the life support. The power cell would have to be replaced, which would take days with what I have planned in store for them."

Shepard laughed. _It was a REALLY good idea keeping him alive._

"I'm impressed Sayn."

"But I'm not done."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? Go on."

The salarian excitedly hit some more buttons on the console. The Destiny Ascension gave way for the Vancouver ambassadorial building.

"I discovered that the council will be staying here, but in emergency council quarters. It's a small bunker underneath the complex." A small box underneath the building appeared in red. Sayn hit more buttons and another smaller box appeared. Protruding from the box was a small tube. All blinked in red. "Now there's a garbage waste shaft that empties out into the garbage disposal administration building located elsewhere in Vancouver. There is a waste management area that is located on the same level as the council bunker. Infiltration and exfiltration will occur at this place. The only downside is that you will have to blow the wall to get to the chambers. The garbage disposal administration building will be closed for several days because their recycler will be broken. Eclipse engineers will be commissioned to work on it, so we won't have to worry about being stealthy on the way in and out."

Shepard did not try to hide how impressed he was. "Sayn you did great work I'm not going to lie."

Sayn smiled. "It was a good thing you kept me alive, eh Shepard?"

Shepard nodded. "I'd be interested to see what your full capabilities are."

Sayn chuckled. "The plans aren't fully finished, but I'll finish them soon."

"I'll check on you in the morning then." Shepard turned to leave the room. The plan was even better than he had hoped. Everything was going perfectly. He shifted his pants a little. _Time to celebrate how happy I am with a certain special someone._ He smiled at the thought as he headed to his chambers. _Maybe this time I'll stop when she begs me to._ Shepard smirked to himself. _Sike!_


	8. Chapter 8

Little update, my tablet which I was writing the rough draft of chapter 8 restarted while I was writing and I lost about half of the chapter. I went to be and rewrote it, and I am actually happier now with it than before. I wrote it on the car-ride to a day trip in NYC, and then on the way back I wrote a bunch of chapter 9. So it all worked out! I forgot to mention before that there will be TEN chapters and an epilogue. So we are getting close to the thrilling conclusion!

As I said before, after I submit the ninth chapter I will go back and touch up on the other chapters. Before I had said that you wouldn't need to reread all the "fixed" chapters if you dont want to, but after thinking about it, I STRONGLY recommend rereading the fixed chapters before the final one, I'm going to be adding a lot of extra goodies I think. So do it, it will be almost like watching all the separate superhero movies before going to see the Avengers movie as prep... Same concept. As you guys can guess, with the end of this story so close, this is my number one priority. EVERYTHING ELSE WILL BE PUT ON HOLD UNTIL I FINISH THE FINAL CHAPTER AND FIXING THE OTHER CHAPTERS. :D

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and that my level of quality has not decreased. NotCras, out!

* * *

Liara put her hands on her hips and looked proudly at the Shadow Liar from the top of the steps. Tali was helping so much, first having modified Glyph to be an even greater help, and then helping Liara with organizing everything. Soon others expressed interest in helping Liara, and soon the Shadow Lair became a buzzing hive of the Normandy crew, working together with the sole purpose of getting Shepard back; the one who had brought everyone together in the first place. The only people that weren't working in the Shadow Lair were the ones that could not; essential crew stayed at their posts.

"Liara, can we talk a moment?" A voice asked behind her. Liara turned and saw that it was Shiala. The baby in her womb, Shepard's baby, had grown. Shiala beckoned Liara through the door to the conference room. She waited until it closed before she spoke.

"Liara..." Shiala sighed in hesitation "I want to talk about the baby with you."

_Shepard's baby... which should have been mine._ Liara crossed her arms. "What about the baby?"

"I don't want to come between you and Shepard... you know, once this is all figured out and done with. So when Shepard is fixed, I'm going to leave the Normandy."

Liara thought a moment. "Where will you go?"

"I don't know... maybe I'll take one of the ships that are going to go back to Thessia, using the mass relays."

"If we fix Shepard, and he finds out that you had a child with him, he will search for you and the baby... It will only cause more drama."

"But that's why I don't want him to find out at all... That's why I'm leaving before he realizes."

Liara put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't do it, we enjoy your company here."

Shiala put her hands on the bulge that was her womb. "Liara, I had always, secretly, wanted a baby with Shepard and now I have that it… I don't want anyone else to get hurt because of it..." She looked down lovingly at where her child was. "Feros taught me the lessons about consequences of your actions and working together." She looked back at Liara. "The baby and I would only be a distraction to the one Shepard really loved, and still loves even like this: you."

Liara smiled and both asari embraced for a short time. Shiala spoke. "I'll stay until you cure Shepard, and then I'll leave."

Liara was going to speak but the door opened. Tali began to make her way out, but stopped when she saw Liara.

"Liara! I was looking for you." She then registered what was going on. "Oh I'll wait."

"Don't worry Tali we were just finishing up anyway." Shiala answered. She motioned to Liara to go. Liara nodded and followed Tali.

"Don't you think it's a little weird that Aria has not responded in any capacity to the messages we sent her? We finally hacked her systems, and she hasn't opened anything in... well in a while."

Liara's face showed her concern. "Any activity inside her systems? It might be able to explain if she's hard at work on something."

Tali shook her head. "Liara, from the records we found, she hasn't accessed her omnitool in months."

Liara was confused. "The queen of omega not using her omnitool? Sounds like something's up."

"Think she could have changed omnitools?"

"No, hers was top of the line, and it's not like a newer, better model came out recently."

Both thought for a moment, and around the same time looked at each other. They had both come to the same conclusion; "Maybe Aria is not the queen any longer." Both said to each other. They hurried to their consoles.

"Uhhh Liara?" Both looked up to see Samantha Traynor looking very concerned at her console. "We have a problem."

"What is it?" Liara answered.

"Well we are getting reports that there are riots going on in London."

"What do they want? More food? More shelter?"

Traynor laughed. "If only it were that simple. They want Shepard as sole leader of the galaxy."

"WHAT?" Liara ran over to Traynor's console. Once she was convinced, she ran into the comm room. "Tali! Get the others and get them suited up. I need to contact Hackett. I think Shepard is putting his plan into motion! Battle stations everyone!"

* * *

"Sayn, you are a bloody genius. Have a massive distraction in London to take the eye off the council, leaving the council in Vancouver with less defenses. Absolutely brilliant."

Shepard complimented the salarian at a bar in Vancouver. The bar itself was Blue Suns owned, so they decided to give the staff the day off and use it as a base of operations. Shepard himself wore new armor than what he was accustomed to. Crimson and black details covered his Armax Arsenal Armor. He was armed with a Mattock heavy assault rifle and a paladin heavy pistol. For this mission they were advised not to use powers, as the security would pick up on the dark energy that would be left behind by biotics.

Shepard turned to view the team that he had assembled. Only the best of the best of each merc organization could work with him. They all wore the same colors as Shepard except with reversed roles. Everyone looked like they were part of a 4th merc group. _They don't know it yet, but they are. Crimson Shepard, my own organization._

Sayn began to pace. "We should move out."

Shepard nodded. "Alright men, proceed to the first step of the operation."

Guns clicked and were raised. Sayn was facing away, going over plans.

"Shepard, it might be best not to walk the streets with guns out. We'll be suspicious as it is." He mentioned as he went over plans. He then turned and realized what was happening.

"Sayn, it might be best to kill the man who came up with the master plan. Later he might become a liability later... right?"

Sayn dropped to his knees in defeat. "I guess there's no denying the inevitability of death." He muttered. "May yours be as cruel."

Shepard's squad checked their weapons on Sayn. By the time they were done, Sayn was so riddled with holes that in some points you could see right through him. His body fell to the ground. Weapons were concealed and they all loaded onto a truck to be brought to the waste administration building.

* * *

Liara hovered the shuttle over the streets of London. Nerves were running high, and the riots of angry refugees in the streets below did nothing to ease them. They could see Alliance soldiers working to establish order, but they only added to the refugee's anger. Whatever Shepard was planning, it was big. _This is it, our last chance._ Liara gave up on finding a landing spot on the ground and instead opted for a rooftop near Aria's building. _We don't know where Shepard might be, but this is our best guess._ On the way down the shuttle had displayed the newscasts of what was going on. There was no sign of Shepard anywhere.

Liara landed the shuttle and everyone poured out onto the rooftop. Aria's building was in sight but off into the distance. It had grown in size and looked as if repairs had been started on the outside. She walked over to the edge and yelled to the others over all the noise.

"We don't know where Shepard is, but Aria's building is our best chance!"

Nods of agreement followed.

"We should not hurt any of the refugees; we are only here for Shepard and his plan. Let's move!"

Everyone made their way down the flights of stairs of the building and made it street side. Before the mobs noticed, they all ducked into the London Underground station nearby. They made their way down stairs and into the underground subway.

The whole place was wrecked, as it seemed that the mobs had made their way through there. It was silent, save for the occasional arc of electricity or a malfunctioning warning sign. None of the trains were moving. Liara led the way to one of the cars. She busted open the doors of the nearest tram car and made her way to the engineer's station. She opened the doors and was greeted by a terrible smell.

"Goddess..."

There, slouched over the controls, was the engineer that was driving the train. Liara inspected the body. Instead of being beaten to death, as was customary with an unarmed riot, a bullet hole was present in the back of his head.

With the help of Garrus, she pulled the body out of the seat. Tali sat down and figured the controls. In no time, the train was moving.

Without incident, they made it to the next platform. This platform looked worse than the first. The group walked out of the tram.

"Mind the gap... Mind the gap... Mind the gap... Mind the gap..."

The overhead speakers kept speaking its warning like a broken record. _Mind the riots above as well while you're at it._ It was EDI that shot the speakers to bring back the silence.

"It brings me pain to see another synthetic in such pain." Everyone gave her weird looks. "That is a joke."

They headed up the stairs and made it to the surface. Aria's building was much closer, and so were the riots. Gunfire was now added to the mixture of sounds.

"The question is, who's firing?" Ashley commented.

"Well I don't want to find out." Garrus replied.

Everyone sprinted the distance to the Aria's building. Upon getting there safely, they burst into the main chamber, guns raised. The room itself was empty except for the couches.

"Check the area!" Liara ordered. Everyone fanned out, searching everything, from the occasional garbage piece, to the lint under the couch pillows. Liara marveled at the emptiness of the building. _There's really nothing here… how could this be possible?_

"I... I found something."

Everyone looked up to see who had spoken. Tali had her hand raised and was pointing to the floor. They walked to it. There was nothing to see.

"I picked up readings right here... It could be a hidden compartment or something." She activated her omnitool and began working. "Let me see what I can do." After a minute or so, part of the floor lowered and then began pulling away, revealing a ladder. Liara looked at the crew. "This is it." She stated.

* * *

The truck finally stopped and the back opened up. Light welcomed the seven men that were sitting inside. Besides Shepard, they were the elite squad that Shepard chose to accompany him to take out the council. Shepard was the first to exit the truck. They were in a large unloading area for dump trucks. He led the way to the main recycler room.

Shepard's squad were not the only ones that were going to the embassy, there was also a battalion of soldiers that would accompany them. Their mission was to take out the ambassadors in the upper building, an equally important position given that they are also politically powerful.

The recycler itself was blown apart, exposing the gigantic shaft that Shepard and his men would use to get to the building. He approached the chief engineer, another salarian, from the back.

"So what's happening?"

"Excuse me sir we are busy at the moment." The salarian turned, and jumped when he realized who he had spoken to. "I'm sorry sir... I didn't realize."

Shepard laughed. "That's only strike one, so don't worry you're still alive."

That did not help the salarian's nerves. "We... we have everything prepared." He began to walk towards the recycler with Shepard following. "Two nights ago our agents sabotaged the filtration units, which is big enough of a problem to shut down the facility. It also justified us blowing a giant hole into the main shaft to get to the filters." Both rounded a corner and Shepard saw the main shaft.

The pipe itself was gigantic, with a radius of around Shepard's height. The hole that the salarian had mentioned was also gigantic as well, being in the upper corner of the pipe and large enough for two people to comfortably enter in simultaneously. Shepard nodded his approval.

"Now is the pipe this large the whole way?"

"Only the part that you care about. Buildings that are along the main shaft have their own smaller pipes that connect the buildings to this shaft. Since the embassy is so big, the main shaft runs underneath the building. Therefore all you need to do is make a hole in the right place and you'll be in the waste management area of the building."

Shepard crossed his arms and smiled. "Thank you." He walked back to the troops, finding an elevated position in the walkways above the recycler to talk to all his troops. _Now it's time for the rousing speech I always give before a great battle to the soldiers that have undying loyalty for me._ He extended his arms and motioned for the soldiers to quiet down. He cleared his throat and then began his speech. "This is it everyone. The moment we enter that pipe, there's no turning back. In all my years of fighting the reapers, the council never helped, they never lifted a finger. And now once I restored order and defeated the Reapers, they think they are so important and are trying to grab control again. I am being hunted because I am too much of a liability now. I did everything!" Murmurs rose up amongst the soldiers. Shepard raised his hands to quiet them. "And so I say down with them! Make those that chase me the ones who have to run now! FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER IS UPON US!" Shepard threw his fist into the air.

"FOR ORGANICS! FOR THE ORDER! FOR SHEPARD!"

The congregation shouted, their fists raised.

"MAY WE BE THE PHOENIX THAT RISES FROM THE ASHES!" Shepard added triumphantly.

The crowds began cheering and they headed down to the pipe to enter. The plan had been that the main force would infiltrate the building first and take out the ambassadors above. This would ensure that the council is in the bunker for safety. _Of course they would be defended as well, but that would only add to the fun._ Shepard thought. Shepard went back to his squad.

"Nice speech there boss."

"It's an honor to be fighting with you."

Shepard nodded thanks. "You men ready to make history?" Smiles answered his question. "Then get ready. Council... here we come."

* * *

Liara felt her feet touch ground and she let go of the ladder. The ladder descent was long and Liara surveyed the small room that she was in. The only thing of note was a door. She opened it. On the other side of it there was a scanning device similar to the one that guarded the war room on the Normandy. A soldier that was standing guard stood up at the sight of intruders. Before he could activate any alarms, Liara threw him into stasis and shot him dead. Nothing else reacted to their scuffle, so Liara put away her pistol. She waited as the rest of the squad made it down the ladder.

"Let's move out, there are people down here."

Everyone readied their weapons and Liara hit the door. Gunfire flew out from the other side of the door, and the squad dove to find cover.

"They knew we were coming!" Ashley exclaimed.

Liara took a peek into the next room. It was large and contained a lot of electric equipment, ranging from displays to consoles to other strange looking equipment. Soldiers, curiously all wearing black armor with crimson details were hiding behind anything they could. Turrets were also set up to help deter the squad. Tali hacked the turrets, but they were in such a position that they couldn't get the soldiers.

With patience, the squad was able to take out a majority of the forces and turrets. Soon the soldiers began to fall back and the squad pushed into the room itself. The fighting got more intense as the squad came upon a second line of turrets. Although there were several other doors, the soldiers seem to be concentrating on defending one specific door. _Something important must be behind there._ Liara motioned to Tali, who hacked into a turret and began unleashing hell upon the soldiers.

"How about hacking your turrets now?" She yelled out excitedly.

This time the soldiers fell quickly. Liara stopped the squad from moving on and gathered them around.

"We don't know what's behind that door, but for all we know it could have something important... I'm thinking some of us should stay here and hack these terminals and while the others go with me past the door."

"Sounds like a plan." Tali replied. She grabbed EDI, and Garrus. "We'll stay here and Liara you take James, Ashley and Javik."

Liara nodded. "Let's go." Her group assumed a breaching position at the door. Ashley punched the door control to open it.

The door opened up into a short, empty hallway. Three pairs of doors stood.

"We should hit each door together instead of splitting up." Ashley suggested.

They moved up to the first door. They breached it and headed inside. They were greeted to a large power cell, apparently powering the whole facility. Nothing living was in the room.

"Liara, it's strange, we are hacking each console, and all we are finding is weather reports for both London and Vancouver." Tali's voice came up on Liara's omnitool.

"Keep checking all the consoles, they must have done a memory wipe." She replied.

They assumed breaching position on the second door. Again they moved in, this time finding an abandoned armory. The room itself was huge, with many bare tables suggesting that the amount of weaponry that it contained was incredibly large. Not all the weapons were used, and the squad made their way to inspect them.

"This is some heavy duty shit right here." James muttered.

"I'll tell you one thing: the sounds of gunfire that we heard while getting to the building does not match any of these weapons. I'd bet my life on it." Ashley told them.

"So then where are these weapons?" Liara scratched her head. "What can they be planning?"

"Whatever it is, something tells me that this cycle is ready to go back to chaos even just a year after defeating the reapers." Javik mentioned.

"Let's try the third door." Liara told the others.

"Third time is the charm isn't it?" Ashley commented. James laughed.

They assumed breaching position on last time outside the third door. Once ready, Ashley again it the door and they rushed in. The room was mostly bare save for a long couch and some consoles. A body lay against the couch, an asari with a revealing stripper outfit. Her legs were bent the wrong way. The asari was shivering and they could hear little mutterings coming from the poor thing. The squad approached the body.

"Is it dead?" James asked. He poked the body with his gun. The asari was startled, jumping up and startling the others. She had a bewildered look in her eyes, her eyes darting at all the people surrounding her. Liara eyed the face closely. _Those face markings... they look so familiar..._

Liara realized and brought her hand to her mouth. "Aria!"

The asari looked away, ashamed to be recognized. "Don't look at me." She whispered.

Liara did not comply, instead walking up to her and kneeling down. "Who did this to you? Where's Shepard?"

At the sound of Shepard, Aria closed her eyes and looked away. "Don't say that name."

"You mean Shepard?"

"DON'T SAY IT!"

Liara took a step back, astonished at the outburst. "What did he do?"

Aria shook her head. "I have nothing now."

"He must have taken control from her." Ashley theorized. "It's all she knew."

"He did more than that." Aria spat out. Momentarily tears started to fall and she looked away again.

"This is just... loco." James exclaimed. "And too loco for the loco that I know…"

Aria regained herself. "He's not here; he left for Vancouver with his men a day ago."

"What is he doing?" Liara asked.

"He's going to kill the council."

"That's absurd. The council is on the Destiny Ascension." Ashley answered.

"No." Aria shook her head. Liara put a hand to her head in realization.

"The council had to be moved because of a power cell failure. They are in Vancouver." Liara realized.

"Then all this was just to distract us!" James exclaimed.

"We need to get out of here." Ashley yelled, running back to tell the others.

"We need to get you to some help, Aria." Liara began to pick her up. After some trouble, she placed her on the couch. Liara turned to James, who was trying to leave.

"Can you lift her?"

"Sure can." He replied turning back around.

"No. I'm not going back."

Aria sat with a pistol aimed at her head. Liara checked her holster, to see that the pistol was hers, taken off of her person when she helped Aria up.

"There are some things that I've lost that I can never get back." She sighed. "I realized that life, the life I was living before and now this… It's all been terrible."

Liara extended a hand. "Don't do this, we can help you!"

"I have no power over anyone anymore... just over myself." A tear left her eyes. "And I plan to use it." She stated defiantly, a final statement.

**BLAM!**

Her head jerked from the impact and her body slumped over onto the couch.

"Goddess..." Liara took the pistol back and walked away.

"She wasn't supposed to use her power over herself like that." James muttered. "She... we could have helped her!"

The others ran into the room after hearing the gunshot. Everyone beheld the body that was sprawled out on the couch in a moment of silence.

"We offered her help, but she wouldn't take it." Liara whispered. "Shepard always denied our offers of help…"

"He's not going to do the same thing." Garrus answered.

"Shepard really messed her up didn't he?" Tali remarked. "Poor thing, there was almost no hope for her to get out safely." She looked at Liara. "Even after this do you think that we can save Shepard?"

"Even if there was no hope, Shepard would still try for us. We have got to at least give him the chance." Liara answered as she turned and started the journey back to the shuttle.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's notes: **Well here we are with Chapter 9 of From the Ashes! This is the second to last chapter, there is one more after this. (minus the epilogue.)

I will be starting the process of fixing up the previous chapters immediately. Expect chapter 10 on Friday, as I have a lot of work ahead of me. haha

Big things happening in this chapter, hope you like them!

* * *

Liara flew the shuttle into Vancouver. Radio chatter indicated that the embassy was overrun. What seemed to be Shepard's forces, soldiers in black and crimson had succeeded in massacring the ambassadors and were currently engaged in battle with the Alliance forces stationed in Vancouver. The situation was dire, and Alliance forces were still in no shape to fight. It seemed that Shepard's forces had total control of the building. Liara touched the shuttle down on one of the landing pads of the embassy building and everyone got out.

"Now the council has a bunker underneath the building that is heavily secured." Ashley advised. "I would say that it's totally secure, but it is Shepard here that we are talking about."

"Then we need to get to that bunker as soon as possible. Shepard is most likely there." Liara planned.

The group headed into the building complex. Shattered glass covered the floor from the window screens of office rooms. Dead bodies were scattered about at desks and on the floor. Liara remarked how nice and modern the diplomatic offices must have looked before they were destroyed. They went down the office halls, searching for a stairwell.

"We need to get down to the main floor; the way down to the bunker is there." Ashley told the group.

"It seems that the main floor is where the Alliance forces are engaging Shepard's as well." Liara added.

"So we get to crack some heads on the way down, fine with me." Garrus smirked.

They made their way down to the main floor. As they worked their way down, they heard gunfire and fighting on the other floors. _We can't make it down to the bunker and help all these soldiers._ Liara rationalized. They hit the main floor and ran out of the stairwell. They almost walked right into a squad of some of Shepard's soldiers, instead catching their mistake and taking them out rather quickly. The soldiers were guarding an entrance to a hallway, with signs indicating that it lead to the lobby.

"We need this hall, where we need to go is right nearby the lobby area."

They raced down the hallway, reaching another set of doors that lead into the main lobby area. A violent clash sounded from the other side.

"Unfortunately for the Alliance soldiers down the hall but the door leading down to the bunker is right here."

Ashley hit a painting, which with a part of a wall, moved to the side to reveal a long hallway, sensors covered this hallway.

"I need to walk in first." Ashley spoke.

She stepped in, sensors shined and lights blinked.

"SPECTRE status recognized. Welcome Spectre Ashley Williams." A robotic voice spoke overhead.

Ashley motioned for them all to follow as another door at the end of the hallway opened. The door revealed an elevator. They all boarded it and waited until the elevator reached its destination. A large and heavily reinforced door stood before them. Ashley walked up to it. Everyone could smell the horrible smell of garbage.

"This door opens to a small reception area. From there we have a choice of two hallways, one leads to the emergency supplies in case of a siege and the other leads to the main council bunker chamber. It contains all the equipment that the council would ever need. Their bedrooms are located just off the main chamber. The receptionist is a retired Spectre and we know that every Spectre is here on Earth after fighting the Reapers so they should be down here as well." She sighed. "This is it."

"I'd just never expected it to smell as bad." James commented.

"That's why I'm so worried." Ashley replied.

She put her hand to the pad, then her eye to another sensor, and finally had blood taken from her finger from yet another sensor. Lights flashed and the door began to open.

The stench was stronger on the other side of the door. They rushed in. Nobody was at the reception desk... in fact an eerie silence drifted in the air.

"Goddess, this can only mean bad things."

They ran past the reception room and down the short hallway into the main chamber. They were greeted to gunfire almost instantly.

"I see that you all still have the knack of finding out where I am." Shepard's voice taunted. "But I still got my knack for pulling off the impossible." He began to laugh; several other voices accompanied him as well.

"You killed the council?" Ashley yelled back.

"I killed the council, all the Spectres guarding them, all the diplomats upstairs, several Alliance soldiers, and I would guess a lot of the police force back in London." Again, more laughter filled the air. "It's no use, go back now, I've won."

"We want to see." Liara replied. "I don't believe you Shepard."

"Then send in a combat drone, and hack its optics. Nothing more."

The group looked at Tali who summoned a combat drone; she hacked the optics and displayed what the drone saw on her omnitool. She brought the drone out into the chamber. Almost immediately, the drone saw the 4 bodies of the galactic councilors, propped up against a couch and riddled with bullet holes. Their faces displayed intense agony. The squad gasped at the sight. Thrown down onto the floor just before the couch were the bodies of the Spectre's that had died trying to defend to the council. Tali then raised the drone, revealing a squad of soldiers with superior height advantage. They were perched on a raised platform with consoles that the council could use. Shepard was busy at work at one of the council terminals. Then the connection immediately went out.

"That's enough of seeing. Leave now or die." Shepard commanded.

"Why? Why are you doing this Shepard?" Liara replied. "I'm not leaving until you tell me... until you tell us!"

"Ok. Just imagine... Here I am trying to start a new life for myself. I was done with all of you. I needed something… more. And yet you find me and try to bring me back. And let me tell you something: I am NOT going back."

Liara began to cry. "Shepard I loved you, I want you back. We all want you back… WE CAN HELP! What more do you need? We all loved you, we were a family. We were going to explore the galaxy together!"

Shepard was silent a long time. "You've got over losing me once; you can learn to do it again." The words came out strained but nonetheless each word stung Liara's heart.

"I'm not giving up on you." Liara wiped the tears from her eyes. "A significant other has got to worry not about themselves, but for the good of their partner." She stepped out from behind cover. "I love you Shepard."

Garrus brought her back before any bullets could do any serious damage.

"Are you crazy? You could have gotten killed!" Garrus reprimanded her.

"There is a part of Shepard that is the old Shepard, the paragon Shepard. If I put myself at risk Shepard will be torn."

"But not with several other soldiers that don't care for you in the room with him!" Garrus replied. "We are going to throw everything we got at Shepard, I promise you that." He took a peak into the chamber. "If we run in, we will have almost no cover to engage them, so either we rush in and pray that we take them out..."

"The odds of that are extremely unlikely; around one to 15,000." EDI chimed in.

"... or we could find something to use as cover." Garrus finished.

All stood and thought.

"Can we use the couch that the councilors' bodies are on?" James asked.

"That position has very low tactical value." EDI evaluated. "The elevated position of the soldiers means the couch would not provide any cover. We would be torn apart in seconds."

"What about stuff in the other rooms?" Tali suggested. "We could make our own cover."

"Yeah, there's got to be something in that supply room. It's as good a plan as any." James remarked.

Ashley snapped her fingers. "We can do even better, I think that there are some of those portable cover generators that we took from Cerberus in there."

The whole started to move off back to the reception area. Tali stopped however.

"Shepard was using the terminal for something. If he was finished, he would have been gone by now." Tali reminded them. "We need someone to distract him from whatever he is doing."

All eyes turned to Liara.

"Fine, I'll try to delay and distract him." She resigned.

The squad ran to back to get the cover, deciding that James would stay back as protection for Liara in case anything happened.

"Why are you using the console?" Liara asked Shepard.

"There are things that need to be done with council clearance."

"Indulge me."

"Dissolving certain organizations, disrupting comm channels, you name it. I've got a galaxy to take over, so I might as well make it easier for me in the long run."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"It's not as if you could stop me." He laughed.

Liara sighed. _I'm not getting anywhere with that._ "Remember our night together before we hit the Cerberus base? What about after the Reapers?" _Better start to dig deep where it hurts._ Liara thought.

"The nights I banged you hard?" he responded. "I will admit you were stunning that night." Shepard's men laughed yet again.

Those words hurt but Liara kept going. "You said that you loved me."

Shepard was unfazed this time. "Things change, sweet cheeks."

"You said you wanted those little blue children with me."

"The things I say to get you in bed…" Shepard laughed.

"Remember the names that we decided we were going to give them? The first one was going to be Benezia after my mother... Then we were going to name the next after one of Samara's children that died. I want to add another name, I want one to be named Aria."

Shepard was silent. _I got him there._ Liara thought. But she herself was having an extremely hard time of keeping herself together as well.

"You know that Aria committed suicide after we found her? She said that we couldn't help her, that she could never get back the things that you took from her."

Again, Shepard replied to Liara with silence.

"At first we couldn't believe what you had done, but we realize that this isn't you."

"I am Shepard, it was me." He finally answered. "And I taught the slut who was boss. She thought she was so powerful, but she couldn't even stand up to me once after I beat her down. She deserved to die…"

He kept talking but Liara did not listen. Instead she watched as the rest of the group came back with the portable cover. She never expected to ever set one of them up.

"Liara we need you to biotically throw the cover into the room." Ashley asked.

Liara nodded, enveloping herself in a biotic aura. She shot the cover out with a throw, and then set them aright. The cover was big enough for two people to use. Once she had set up three pieces of cover, the squad rushed out behind them. The cover adequately held against the gunfire.

"We are not giving up without a fight. You taught us that much Shepard!" Garrus yelled to Shepard.

He laughed. "Well this should be fun." They could see him stop at the control and say something to one of his soldiers. The soldier nodded.

"Prep your grenades!" He yelled.

Shepard's squad threw a volley of grenades. Liara acted fast and knocked them out of the way with biotics. They exploded harmlessly off to the side.

"Take them out!"

Gunfire from both sides erupted as Shepard continued to work on the console. Shepard's squad had been trained well; they responded and overcame every attempt at the Normandy squad's to attack. Soon they were low on thermal clips. Liara looked around to see the others looking at her.

"Keep firing, I need to think about what to do." The others nodded and kept at it.

Liara sat down, her back against the cover. _We are almost out of thermal clips and we haven't taken out any of these soldiers._ She put her hand to her head. _Come on Liara, think... think!_ She tried to think but every time her thoughts drifted back to Shepard and how to help him. She couldn't help to think about how close that she was to failing at her last chance at Shepard, the one chance that the Normandy crew had to get back their center. _Shepard is the center, that's it!_ Liara peeked over the cover. Shepard spoke another order to one of his squad as he worked on the console. _Just like he held us together, Shepard is holding this squad together as well._ She then realized where her idea was leading her. _Then we need to take out Shepard and the squad will fall apart._ She peeked over the cover again at Shepard. The way he stood, the way he was, everything was off. _But the real Shepard is in there somewhere. I can't do that to him, I can't do that to myself._

Garrus caught her eye. "We are so close to running out, tell me you have something."

Liara looked up, wanting more time for a better plan. But time was precious. "I do have one, but it involves taking out Shepard." In her mind she desperately hoped Garrus would talk her out of it.

"Then for the good of the galaxy, I guess there's no other way." Garrus exchanged his assault rifle for his sniper. He looked back at Liara. "I'm sorry Liara, but it has to be done."

He jumped out from behind cover and took aim. His shield rippled as bullets came for him. Then he took the shot.

It all happened in slow motion for Liara. The bullet exited Garrus' rifle and headed straight for Shepard. His squad ducked out of the way, only realizing too late where the bullet was headed. She watched as the bullet entered Shepard just below the ribs on the right side. She watched the body hit the console and sink down.

She couldn't take it anymore and left cover and ran to Shepard. She killed one of Shepard's squad who was in the way with a biotically charged punch, sending his body flying away. The others evaded the asari and fled back into the sewers. Liara reached Shepard and applied medigel instantly. _Just don't be dead. I will kill myself right here, right now if you are dead._ She checked his vitals.

"He has a heartbeat." She muttered, astounded. "Shepard is alive!"

Gratefully she hugged the body, giving it a kiss. Then she inspected his body. _Finally after all this time I have you in my arms._ The others ran up behind her. Just like in all those stories with happy endings, Liara hoped that he would be looking at her, smiling, somehow miraculously cured. But he was not. Ashley grabbed her shoulder and brought her back from her thoughts.

"We need to get him to the hospital!"

* * *

The hospital took Shepard immediately. Liara could only watch as the doctors swarmed over Shepard. Soon one came out to tell the squad of the initial findings.

"We cleaned his wounds, and in fact a lot of the trauma is healed already, but it seems to us that Shepard is in a coma. There's not much that we can do." The doctor sighed. "We will definitely keep him in the ICU, but we can't do anything until Shepard is awake."

"Thank you doctor. Is he in his room? Can I see him?" She asked.

"He is in ICU room 007."

Liara sprinted off to get to the room. There she found Shepard in the hospital bed with medical equipment attached all over him. Even though the equipment was not invasive and merely measuring his vitals, they reinforced a sickly image onto Shepard. Liara put her hand to his face, again hoping that he would somehow wake up.

"Well its getting close to the time that I have to say goodbye."

Liara looked to see Shiala was at the door. She held her womb and was looking at Shepard.

"I guess our child will only see her father in the vids."

Liara shook her head. "It's absurd for you to leave. You would not be a distraction. We are family."

Shiala looked at Liara. Her eyes were watery. "I just don't know what's best for the child." She looked down at her womb which she rubbed. Liara couldn't help but feel sorry for the asari, despite her jealousy.

"It's a totally different world with a child isn't it?" Liara observed.

"I am scared that I will be a bad mother. I'm a commando for crying out loud!" Shiala looked back up, this time with a little twinkle in her eye. "But my love for this baby already overcomes the fears."

Liara digested it. "I want a baby. And not just a baby, I want Shepard's baby." The words came out without any thought. Liara regretted them instantly.

Shiala walked up to her and put her hand on her shoulder. Liara looked into Shiala's eyes. "I know you will fix Shepard no matter what, and I will be there to help. You will make an amazing mother, I know it."

Liara blushed at the compliment. "Thank you." She looked back at Shepard.

Shiala looked at him too. "And he will be a great father. I just know it." She brought her hand to Liara's arm. "Come on, it's been a crazy day, you should relax."

Liara brushed off Shiala's hand. "If I were anywhere else, I wouldn't be relaxed." Shiala nodded and walked to the doorway. "I'll be back later then to see if you're not starving." She left the room.

Liara went back to running her hand along Shepard's face. The time that they lost had not been kind to Shepard. His scars had barely healed and creases marked the spots of the face that indicated anger. Liara yawned. _It's been a long day. But Shepard is safe._ Almost instinctively, she laid her head down on Shepard's pillow and climbed into the bed. _How I've missed sleeping with you by my side._ She kissed his face and put her head back down. She fell asleep almost instantly, a welcome change to the many sleepless nights she had in bed alone.

_We will help you Shepard. We've pulled off the impossible and got you back. If we can pull it off once, we can pull of the impossible again._


	10. Chapter 10

Liara awoke to the sound of Shepard's heartbeat monitor. She sat up, rubbing her eyes and stretching her arms out. The rest had done her a ton of good, unlike other nights she felt well rested. She looked around the room to see that some of the other crew was there.

Tali made her way over the Liara. "How are you feeling?" She held a plate of food out for her. "It's not anything special, but we thought we could give you a breakfast in bed."

Liara smiled and took the food. _I've never been so hungry._She inhaled the food and looked up. "Thank you, but having breakfast in bed is not a high priority of mine."

"We have been through a lot Liara; sometimes we need a little luxury to keep us going." Tali took back the plate. "And it's the end run isn't it?"

Liara nodded. "I can feel it."

Liara climbed out of Shepard's hospital bed and stretched her legs out. She looked back at Shepard for a moment.

"Where's everyone else?" She asked.

"The doctors are discussing what to do with Shepard; we thought we should let you know. They're in a room down the hall." Garrus mentioned. "And the rest of the crew is either on the Normandy or just heading down now."

"I'm going to listen to the doctors, want to tag along?"

She turned and beckoned them to follow her. She couldn't help but notice that they were holding hands again. _Do this right Liara and you will be doing that soon enough._She quickened her pace and walked into the room.

Dr. Morrow sat at the head of a large table. Dr. Chakwas was also seated, as well as several other doctors that she did not recognize. Shiala sat near the door as well. Chakwas turned to greet them from her chair.

"Liara, Tali, Garrus, pleasure to see you. Sit down."

The three of them sat down and listened to the doctors' debate a little bit to get their bearings of where the conversation was.

"I would have to disagree, Dr. Steinman. This is purely a mental ailment right now. There is nothing biological about it." Dr. Morrow stated defiantly to the other doctor.  
"Everything ties into biology!"

"Then explain somatic disorders! The mind is separate and makes the body sick!"

The other doctor threw up his arms. "Then what do you suppose we do, Dr. Morrow?" The doctor added, adding a childish tone to his voice. He sat back in his chair, almost looking ready to throw a temper tantrum.

"Well, we have to help him mentally."

"HE'S IN A COMA, Dr. Morrow." Steinman shouted, a victorious smile on his face.

Dr. Morrow quit looking at him and looked over at Liara. "If I'm not mistaken, Shepard has an asari bondmate. She can meld with him and help him, isn't that right Liara?"

"I don't see any other way Dr. Morrow." Liara answered. Dr. Steinman slouched back in his chair in defeat.

Liara found herself leading the group back into Shepard's ICU room. She moved onto the bed and stared at Shepard. The others gathered around.

"Embrace eternity!" Liara shouted, her eyes going dark. She made contact with Shepard, but nothing happened. No dark void, and no Shepard. She pulled back and her eyes went back to her normal state. _What happened?_She looked at the doctors. "Nothing happened." She reported.

The doctors in the group nodded their heads and muttered amongst each other. Liara felt like the doctors had never seen an asari mind meld before. Liara then remarked that she really had never seen one either, even when she did one her attention was focused... elsewhere. _At least this shows that they don't watch fornax. But it's still a little creepy._

"Maybe we need to give you privacy." Dr. Morrow suggested. "It must be uncomfortable for us to be watching you like this."

He shepherded everyone out and shut the door behind him. Liara turned her focus back to Shepard. _Alright let's get to business._She lay with Shepard.

"Embrace eternity!" She commanded to the unresponsive Shepard.

Again her eyes went dark, but nothing happened. _What is wrong?_ She sat back up in defeat. _Maybe I need to get my hormone levels up or something._ She brought her lips to Shepard's and held it. She wrapped her arms around him for a short while. _Come on Shepard, help me._She sat up and tried again.

"Embrace eternity!" She commanded, but this time with less certainty. Again she was met with the same failure.

She left the bed and opened the door. The group had expanded in size, with more of Normandy's crew coming to see their commander in a coma. They all looked at her in hopeful anticipation. But seeing Liara's face their hopes dampened.

"Did it work?" Dr. Morrow asked, still hopeful.

Liara shook her head. "I don't know why but I couldn't get in."

Shiala took a step forward. "Maybe I can help in some way?"

Samara stepped forward as well. "As another asari I would gladly offer my services as well."

Liara let them in and shut the door behind her.

"It's worked plenty of times before, but now I can't meld with Shepard."

Samara walked the perimeter of Shepard's bed. "Child, when an asari melds with another, there must be a mutual consensus between the two partners to meld." She stopped walking and turned to Liara. "Maybe even in this coma the renegade Shepard is still in control and refuses to mind meld with you." Liara did not want to believe it, but she knew that it could be true. She knew that such a strong will could even block a forced meld. She also didn't like what she knew was the next step from that. "Maybe we should have Shiala try to meld with him."

Shiala blushed and looked over at Liara. Her eyes told Liara that she wanted her permission before she did anything with Shepard. Liara nodded but turned away as Shiala mounted the bed.

"Embrace eternity!" Shiala commanded. Liara heard a little moan of passion come from the asari, but nothing afterwards.

"It didn't work." Shiala stated.

_I wonder if I moan like that every time I meld... hopefully I didn't do it in front of the doctors..._Liara thought. She turned back to face Shiala, who was just climbing out of the bed.

"Then what do we do?"

Samara looked at Liara. "Either we find a way or we have to cut our losses." Liara fought to hold it together.

"We are not giving up after this." Liara stated as she walked back to the door to report her findings to the doctors.

* * *

Liara rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she looked at Shepard, still in the coma. They had tried everything that they could think of: they tried to electrically stimulate Shepard's brain into responding to a mind meld, they attempted to make Javik work his own Prothean touch, they even debated what consciousness was on a fundamental level to see if there was any other way of reaching Shepard. Nothing they tried worked, and Liara was starting to doubt that they could cure Shepard. She made her way back to the doctors. She didn't fully listen but they were debating if tampering with his nanite upgraded synthetics could hold the key. Liara didn't even remember what she really said, but she vehemently objected to the offer.

Before she knew it, she was being dragged off by a nurse and Garrus. They threw her onto a bed.

"Sleep." Garrus commanded.

Liara was too tired to object, and the needle that the nurse stuck into her made sure she had no will to object anyway.

* * *

Liara opened her eyes and sat up in her bed. This one did not have Shepard in it, and her night's sleep reflected that.

"So you're up."

Shiala sat in a chair off to the side of Liara's bed.

"You kinda went renegade on us last night. First you freaked out when they wanted to tamper with his synthetics, and then when they said they had no more ideas you flipped." She took a sigh. "Like with biotics."

Liara groaned and shook her head. _How come I don't really remember that?_Shiala saw Liara's confusion.

"They sedated you before you actually did anything bad though."

_That's why I don't remember._

"I just want to cure Shepard, but I don't want to kill him doing it." Liara muttered. She began to cry. "Why is this so hard?"

Shiala walked up and sat with Liara. She put a friendly arm around her. "The important things, the things we do for those we love are never easy. Just think of what Shepard went through with the Reapers."

Liara nodded. "So while I was out was there any progress?"

Shiala looked away. "No there wasn't. In fact people are theorizing now that's he's a vegetable. Which would explain why we couldn't meld with him."

"NO!" Liara stood up violently. "We can't just give up like this! There must be another way to reach Shepard's mind... It's not like Garrus shot him in the head!" She marched out of the room and worked her way to Shepard's room.

When she got there she burst through the door and marched in. There the rest of the Normandy crew was gathered around Shepard with solemn looks upon their faces.

"This is not over!" She told them, desperate for them to get their senses back. "We just need another way!"

Ashley walked up to Liara. "Liara, there's nothing else we can do." Ashley embraced Liara. "I'm sorry." Liara began to sob.

"NO!" She biotically charged herself and threw Ashley away. "WE HAVEN'T DONE EVERYTHING! I JUST KNOW IT." She hovered a little in the air.

"LIARA CALM DOWN!" Garrus yelled. Liara saw Chakwas call a nurse. _If they put me out again, Shepard is done for._

Liara broke down, having her biotics gently bring her down on the floor. The door opened to a nurse, but they shooed him away. But the door didn't close as she'd expect it to. Shiala stood in the doorway. She had a smile on her face.

"Liara, before you left your room, you said something to me... That there must be a different way to access his mind. And I think that there is."

Liara wheeled around and moved closer. The look of desperation in her eyes was apparent to all. "What is it?"

Shiala pointed to herself. "When the other Feros colonists, who had thorian spores within them, were alive I could feel their thoughts... we were connected. And later as we learned more about our connection, we were able to influence each other by selectively giving them thoughts of ours."

Liara picked herself up off the floor, wiping away her tears. "So if we somehow give Shepard these spores, you can make him accept my meld?"

"Well at least in theory..." Shiala stated.

"Then we need to go to Feros right now." Liara began to make her way around Shiala out the door. Shiala blocked her way and Liara looked back at the crew for help. Chakwas took a step towards Liara.

"Or we can synthesize the spores from Shiala's bloodstream. That would save you the trip Liara." Chakwas thought.

Liara turned to Shiala. "Would you do that?"

She nodded. "He's the father of my child Liara. Of course I will help."

Liara shuddered. "Then let's get to work!"

* * *

The extraction of the spores from Shiala's bloodstream was simple. They were so prevalent in her bloodstream that they only need a small sample of blood. Then they began the process of synthesizing it. Had Mordin been alive, he could have completed it in one day. The mixed species team of salarian, human, and asari doctors however tried to make up for that. Their estimated time: one week.

Liara could not sit around that long, but now there was hope for Shepard. She put all her resources and supplies into synthesizing the thorian spores. They managed to wittle it down to four days. Once they finished the process, they injected it into Shepard and hoped for the best.

Liara could not sleep at all on that night, instead choosing to sit and watch Shepard in his bed. Shiala slept in another bed, wheeled into the room. It was decided that keeping them close could help their connection, at least initially. As she sat watching them sleep she had a lot of time to think to herself. _What if the connection is too strong and Shepard falls for Shiala?_ She could not bear to think what that would mean. _What should we do with the baby?_ Obviously now Shepard is going to know about it. _Why does it have to be Shiala that has the solution? Why don't I matter?_Liara silently cursed fate. She looked back onto the green asari, deep in sleep. Over the course of their time together trying to find Shepard, Liara had grown close to the asari. She couldn't bring herself to hate her for her baby, or for anything else. Shiala had her own problems, and Liara tried hard to be happy for her and the baby.

Liara sighed and looked back to Shepard. His neutral face had changed into something different, something discomforted. Liara stood up and looked over to Shiala. Shiala had just started tossing and turning. _I think it's happened. The spores must have taken hold._Liara ran over and shook Shiala awake.

Shiala tore open her eyes, panting loudly. "Liara..." Her face twisted in pain. "So... many... thoughts..." Again her face displayed much pain. "So... much... pain." She let out a loud painful yell.

"I'll get a doctor!" Liara panicked, hitting the nurse button on Shepard's bed. She was about to leave, but Shiala let out a gasp and raised her hand.

"Don't… leave… I don't want to be alone."

"Shiala!" Liara gasped.

She began to shake uncontrollably, but she regained herself.

Shiala looked up at Liara. "I... I opened him for you." She doubled over in pain, but regained herself. "Get in, I have to keep it open for as long as you are in." She let out a painful yell. "So please... hurry." She weakly managed to whisper.

Liara ran to Shepard on the bed. She went on the bed and straddled his body.

"Embrace eternity!" She yelled, her eyes going dark.

The room then began to peel away until there was nothing but a dark void.

Liara was all alone in the dark void. A green haze was present, and Liara could make out the muffled voice of Shiala's coming from the haze. Liara looked around to search for Shepard. _We did successfully meld, so he's got to be here somewhere._

"Shepard!" She yelled.

THUD!

The sound was distant, and Liara looked in the direction of the sound. Off in the distance she made out two figures. One stood over the other and seemed to be yelling something to the other. Liara ran to them as fast as she could.

As she approached the two, she began to make out the details. One of the figures was indeniably Shepard, covered in bruises and cowering in fear. The second figure was larger than Shepard and stood over him. As she came closer, Liara realized that it was the boy that she had seen from his dreams. Having matured, the now resembled a mix of the boy and Shepard. He towered over him, now resembling more of a giant than a boy. Liara saw him kick Shepard and send him flying. The boy then turned to Liara as she ran up.

"Oh, it's you." His voice thundered. "Come to set things right?" He laughed maniacally. He used his hands as little puppets. "Oh, I'm the little asari that has laid claim to Shepard. He can't do anything that I don't approve of." Then the other hand spoke. "And I'm miss green haze that will not make me notice the little asari's entrance so I can't block it!" He mocked. "Well NEWS FLASH! Shepard is different now and stronger too!" Liara noticed the haze begin to fade. "I'll bet miss haze likes the trouble I'm giving her." He walked up to Liara and brought his face to her level. "And we don't need you." He flicked her away some distance.

The real Shepard watched in horror. "NO! LIARA!" He stood up and curled his hand into a fist.

The boy laughed. "And what will happen if you kill me, like you so want to do?" He boy approached Shepard. "Even though you think it to be righteous, killing a part of yourself is a renegade action. If the paragon side of someone did that, then they are obviously NOT paragon." He kicked Shepard away as well. "You would just become corrupted, and become the very thing that you hate!" He opened his arms. "So kill me! It will actually work in my favor."

Liara got up and rushed to Shepard's aid. He looked up at her in pain.

"I... I can't beat him. No matter what, if I kill him, I will become corrupted and there will be nothing that can cure me then."

"We have to think of something Shepard, we have to hurry; Shiala is in incredible pain keeping me in this meld with you."

"But there's nothing that I can do." He sighed.

"Shepard, you have to face him somehow."

"I… I don't know."

"HOW TOUCHING, YOU WHORE!" Both dived away as the boy smashed the spot they had been just seconds before.

_What do we do?_ Liara was desperate. She looked to see Shepard dodging the boy's attacks. _If Shepard kills the boy, the renegade action will corrupt Shepard. But there is no other way to get rid of the boy unless he dies… But what if I did it? I wouldn't be killing a part of myself._

Liara ran up to Shepard. "What if I did it?"

Shepard watched her hand curl up into a fist. "Don't do it Liara! Don't corrupt yourself!"

Liara looked back at Shepard. "A significant other must do not what is best for themselves, but what is best for their spouse. I do this for you because I love you. There is nothing more paragon than that."

She ran at the boy with a yell. The boy was ready for her and threw a punch. Liara jumped, flying over the punch. To keep herself from flying past the boy, she grabbed his head, her hands finding his eye sockets.

The boy screamed and tried desperately to throw her off. The boy grabbed Liara, but something worse brought the hands away from Liara. The boy thrashed, and Liara caught a glimpse of Shepard kicking the boy's crotch and weaving away from his hands. _Shepard can't kill the boy, but at least he can help._ Liara began to lay punch after punch into the boy's head. The boy began to shrink with each punch. Liara noticed that the haze had faded a lot. _If the haze disappears, that means that Shiala is out... and so am I._Liara kept up her punching with a new ferocity. Liara wished that biotics worked in the consciousness, as she would have made short work of them boy. The boy had shrunk to about his former size finally. He still displayed signs of life, and Liara kept punching. The boy began to cry, but Liara would not fall for that trick. She kept punching the boy, wherever she could. If he blocked his face, she went for the chest, and vice versa.

Finally, the boy went limp. His face had been smashed in, and his bones were a paste. Liara got up, covered in the boy's blood. She turned to face Shepard, who also had a sizable amount of blood on his body.

"You must really love me if you can justify that." He motioned to the heap of flesh lying behind her.

Liara smiled. Both bodies flew to each other in a passionate embrace. And then the haze disappeared.

It happened just like in the storybooks. Liara came to, finding the love of her life eyeing her with open eyes. Liara slapped him and smiled, but then immediately they embraced and kissed, caring nothing for the Normandy crew that was present inside the room. Both began to cry and laugh at the amazing turn of events.

The couple sat up and looked around at the rest of the crew. Everyone was smiling at them. _We did it._Liara thought. Tali was the first to go in and hug both of them, and soon the rest of the Normandy came together in one big mass of hugging bodies.

One big family.


	11. Epilogue

There was another more sad reason why they had hugged the couple. Shiala had died. Liara could not believe it. The asari could not stand the pain that the boy had put onto her, but she kept the connection to save Shepard nonetheless. She had nearly went insane. When the doctors and Normandy crew came in to see the asari doubled over in pain, but also Liara in a successful meld with Shepard, they did not know what to do.

Liara looked down at the little bundle that she carried.

She had begged them to save the baby. She knew that she was going to die, Liara wondered just when. They cut the baby out, only a few weeks early. _Maybe she never said her idea during our brainstorming because she knew what would happen._Liara really didn't want to think about it. All she cared about was that when Liara beat the boy to death, Shiala had a few moments of peace before she succumbed.

Liara moved the cover of the bundle to expose the baby's face. It was green, just like her mother, with radiant blue eyes. At least Liara could connect with the blue eyes. It was her baby now; Shiala had entrusted her to Liara.

Shepard turned in his sleep and Liara looked at him. After all that, having faced his renegade side with the help of Liara and coming out of a coma, he needed rest. Once everyone had left, he fell right asleep. Liara leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. He reached up and pulled her down, lathering her in kisses. _So he is awake after all._He wrapped his arms around her, finding the bundle in her arms.

"What is this?" He asked, sitting up and removing the cover of the bundle. He laid eyes on his child. "So you are my little friend in my dreams."

Liara looked at him weird. "What do you mean?"

Shepard was making faces at the baby, much to its enjoyment. "In my dreams I felt this sort of connection, to what I don't know." He turned his head to Liara. "But I just know it's this baby."

"Well she's yours." Liara pieced the puzzle together. "You must both have the spores within you... you are... connected." She took back the bundle. "She is beautiful isn't she?"

Shepard kissed her on the cheek. "I don't know who is more in this room: you or the baby."  
She laughed. "If you say the baby it's narcissistic. She's got your looks."

Shepard put his arms around her. "Well then I guess I choose you."

The baby began to pout and cry. Shepard looked at the baby. "Ok fine! I choose both of you!" The baby smiled and Liara felt that something had gone on between them that she lacked the connection to feel.

* * *

Shepard had rather quickly gained his strength back and was helping out at the hospital, waiting for them to release him. He was changing bed pans in a room, upon completion of the task he turned and saw a man standing in the doorway. Admiral Hackett stood in his full military uniform.

"You did a hell of a thing back there Commander." He took a step into the room. "You killed the council, and convinced the masses to have you as sole leader of the galaxy. They even still eagerly await your ascension to the throne… And then you claim that you were insane and now you're fine. You are just full of surprises Shepard."

Shepard eyed the Admiral. "I'm sorry." He apologized. "I don't really know what to say… are you going to arrest me for the council's deaths?"

The admiral chuckled. "I don't think you understand, Commander. If we jailed you, the people would riot again and devastate our peacekeeping force. If you died, we might as well all be dead. You need to be the leader of the galaxy."

Shepard sighed. "But I don't want to be a leader... I'm a soldier through and through."

"There are no soldiers for peacetime commander. You need to move on."

"But I want to retire."

"We must all make sacrifices." Hackett smiled. "I've already set up a press release. It's up to you." He turned to leave. "Meet me at the embassy in 2 hours... you know, the place that you killed everyone in."

He left and Shepard slammed the bedpan. "Haven't I done enough sacrifice already?" He yelled back at the Admiral.

* * *

Shepard stood at a podium, looking out into the crowd of people that had formed. Cameras were focused on him from every angle, which would transmit the speech to giant view screens set up all over the world. Behind him stood Liara and the baby, as well as the rest of the Normandy crew. Hackett stood off to the side, shifting nervously because Shepard would not share his speech to anyone. _I guess it's true that I'm full of surprises, because you'll just have to wait for me to start._Green lights signaled him to start. Shepard took a breath and started his speech to the masses.

"I stand by my decision to kill the council. Such a small group in power succumbed to stupid politics, ultimately caring more for their power and political debates than their sworn duties to the needs of the council races. They would have hampered our growth in a time when we needed to grow. The garden that was the galaxy was being choked out by a tree that had grown in the same soil. It was just one plant, but it grew such out of proportion that it needed to be removed for the sake of the other plants.

But I cannot speak those words and then become leader of the galaxy. That is why I will not. We will replace the tree with many radiant flowers. I will help form a new council, made up of all the races that fought the reapers. Every race has shown that they care about what happens in the galaxy, and that is good enough a reason to me to give them a seat on my new council.

And once the new council is set up, I will leave. I wish to retire with my family, just as you might with your own. Is that too much to ask? And I'm not just talking about my Normandy family. There is someone else that I love." He looked back at Liara. "And I was wondering if she would like it to be official... if she would marry me." Shepard turned to Liara and went down on one knee. He pulled out a ring, one with a radiant blue gem in the center. Liara gasped and brought her hands to her mouth. Tears of joy materialized at her eyes, and once the baby was given to Ashley who was next to her, she ran to Shepard and wrapped her arms around him.

Once people got over the scene before them, they patiently waited for Shepard to say more. But Shepard had planned not to. He wanted them to realize that as much as he cared about the galaxy, he had someone he cared about more. They would come to terms with that sooner. The engagement was serious, but it also served a dual purpose; Shepard wanted to distract the people from his previous words of non-committal of his former aspirations to pacify them.

Soon people began to leave once they realized that Shepard was done speaking. They left in droves. Once Liara had let go of him and he had talked with the crew, he looked out to the non-existent audience. Only one person was left, looking oddly familiar he had a kind face and wore glasses. Upon seeing Shepard looking at him, he smiled and nodded. Shepard returned the greeting. Just the aura of the man Shepard couldn't come to think that he was creepy. Shepard stepped back and walked away from the podium with the Normandy crew behind him.

He would have to stay on Earth for a little longer to set up the new council. He told the Normandy crew to leave and make preparations to leave. Nothing short of a Reaper revival would make him stay.

* * *

Finally it was all done. Shepard had assembled the leaders of the many species that had worked together to defeat the reapers into a new council. And now it was his time to leave. He smiled to Liara who sat across from him in the shuttle. She held the baby and pointed to the view screen.

"There's our home Shiala."

Shepard looked as well. The Normandy was different with the new prototype FTL drives. A secondary wing started from the top of the vessel and met the lower wing at the tip. A small cylinder apparatus sat situated between the wings, closer to the Normandy. That was the new prototype engine that was the initial reason that they had stayed on Earth.

Shepard did not understand the details, but the simple details made him happy. The baby gurgled Shepard's delight as well.

"Yes, there's home." Shepard added, looking at the mother and child. _Soon we'll have our own little blue children to match._Liara answered his stare with a kiss.

"You have not been home in some time... Do you still recognize it?" Liara teased.

"Well the engines are new, I'm sure nothing on the inside has changed much." He eyed Liara. "Hopefully I can make up for my long absence." He answered her with another kiss.

"I'm sure you will." She answered seductively.

The shuttle pulled into the docking bay and the small family got out. They were greeted by the whole crew. A large banner hung up behind them read: Welcome Home Shepard!

Shepard took a moment to take it all in.

"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite ship in the galaxy." The statement was cheesy, maybe even stupid, but he had come up with it on the spot.

He was answered with laughter. They had prepared a cake for him and the baby, and soon everyone was having a good time. After some time had passed in the cargo bay, Garrus approached Shepard and beckoned everyone to quiet down. He looked to Shepard.

"So Shepard, where are we going first?"

Frankly Shepard did not know where to go first. "Let's just pick a direction and see what we find."

"I think we can all agree with that."

Soon a direction was chosen and the ship embarked. After a short toast, everyone began to fizzle out and head for bed. Shepard and Liara went up to the captain's quarters, accompanied by the little bundle that Shepard held.

They prepared for bed, with Shepard tucked the little sleeping baby Shiala into her small cradle. He then turned to Liara who was already in bed.

"So we got our little green baby here, but what about those little blue ones we promised each other?" He stepped approached the bed. "What were we going to name them? First one was going to be Benezia..."

Liara shook her head smiling. "No, the first one should be Aria."

Shepard nodded. "So to Aria?" He came up to Liara's side of the bed and pulled the covers off his lover. Her naked body was revealed, luscious blue curves accented by the neutral colored covers.

"How about to us?" She suggested.

"Then to us." Shepard brought his lips to hers, intend on fulfilling their promise.

... or at least part one of many.

* * *

**Author's notes:**Well just a few minutes ago I had submitted both chapter 10 and the epilogue to From the Ashes... just hope I kept up to my previous level of quality.

This week has been crazy. I thought I could sit down and do serious work fixing up the previous chapters and then put out an amazing finale, but life always gets you when you start thinking that. I had to work a little overtime at work, and in the off time, I had to help out at home and actually do social stuff... pfffft not cool and especially not cool when I had this to finish xD. Anyway, I sort of fixed up the chapters, but I didn't finish in time, so I'm going to finish that tomorrow. Please bear with me. Lol Then I will put in an actual author's note in the epilogue here.

Finally, if you thought the story ended at From the Ashes, you were wrong. There is more that will come soon! I'm tired as I pulled a lot of late nights writing chapter 10, the epilogue and fixing up chapters, so let me take a break. Lol


End file.
